Overcast
by miucoo
Summary: Leah Clearwater moves to Forks from her beloved hometown. Jasper Whitlock is there to save her from enemies both within and without himself. A different kind of familiar story. Jasper/Leah
1. Prologue

A.N.: Full description with chapter one.

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**Prologue**

I closed my eyes, swallowing the urge to scream, to lash out, kick, bite—_something. _I forced myself into the still picture of calm that _he _radiated, imagining that it was him. No big deal, right? Just a little bite... Well, there was the whole issue of being killed and drained, but I shoved that thought away from my mind.

I had to do this. I had to let this thing violate me in ways that _he_ had always threatened he was on the verge of. I had never believed in his kind, and even a few hours ago I would have answered that truthfully, I still didn't fully believe. There was no concrete evidence, nothing up-close, no getting caught in the act. But now... This man's teeth glowed like pearly daggers in the bleak lighting, his eyes alight with a deep, twisted hunger as he approached. He drew himself to me, turning my head so delicately and so gently that I was almost fooled. I shivered violently as he lowered his head to my neck...and I felt him smile against it.

Any moment now, and I would feel the sting of his teeth sinking into my flesh.

This was the end.


	2. Curiosity Killed the Teenager

**A.N.: **Okay, here it is: my first published fanfiction for Twilight-a series that I'm actually not a fan of.

The idea for Overcast was for me to take the basic idea of Twlight (the first novel) and basically write that story but without Bella and Edward. Honestly, not being able to stand Bella and only able to take Edward in small doses, I thought, "Well, should I use OCs or not?" I really didn't want to write the same exact novel, minus a few scenes here and there, and I've been sore over the lack of screen time for my favorites in the series for a while, so the idea to use Leah and Jasper in their place was almost automatic. I thought that with Leah's temperamental and rash but ultimately grateful and tough personality mixed with Jasper's almost infuriating coolness, charm, and natural charisma I already had the makings of a decent Alt. Universe, somewhat-relevant Twilight (rather than those entirely out of character AH/AU things I see on here all the time).

I felt like with the whole Sam/Leah thing out of the picture, I had a somewhat less bitchy, easier to work with but still cynical Leah; and with a non-hostile Leah I could have a wide-open sandbox for character interactions between her and an initially reserved Jasper. This first chapter really just the set-up for a radically different "what-if" Twilight story, and there are already some dissimilarities. The story, at one point, completely deviates from the original (but I'm not giving anything away), and I promise you that if you stick to it, there is an enjoyable, completely different (romantic) adventure to read.

Plus, it's Jasper/Leah. Isn't that what made you click on this in the first place?

**DISCLAIMER: **In no way, shape, or form do I claim Twilight or any of its characters or scenarios mine. If I did, I'd have written in a three-way between Jasper, Carlisle, and Bella _somewhere _(duh!).

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**1. Curiosity Killed the Teenager  
**

It was a beautiful day, I noticed as my father drove us to the Fort Worth airport. With the windows rolled down, the heated air streamed through the gaps and filled my nose and mouth with what was quite possibly the last air I'd breathe from Texas in a while. The untouched sky, blue and wide like the top of some gigantic balloon, filled my chest with the light airiness that comes from seeing something beautiful. There it sat next to my apprehension at leaving the place that had been my home for as long as I could remember, only to head to my birthplace and the possible polar opposite of Southlake: Forks, Washington.

I remembered the place vaguely from the trips I used to take there from the age of six to thirteen, visiting my mother in a town that was otherwise virtually lifeless. The things that stuck out most in my mind were the very antithesis of my home—virtually no buildings, people, sun, or sky. In Southlake I could have driven the car to a nearby Corner Bakery and spent the entire day in the same area, walking from place to place. I knew that the nearest decent shopping center even comparative to the Southlake Town Square was in Seattle, nearly a three hours' drive. To be scuttled so suddenly from my beloved developed suburbs to the sticks, well, it was sure to be a disconcerting experience.

I removed myself from the weather, glancing briefly at my father's profile and reminded of the true reason for this abrupt change. His eyes, hazel and almost exactly like mine, were fixed unblinkingly at the road but only because their sheen would have tipped me off to the fact that he was almost crying. I was his daughter and I'd been living with him for the past sixteen years, though, and I didn't need to see his face to know that he was upset. But then there was the healthy glow to his skin, the fullness to his face that had only appeared recently and only after _she'd _stumbled into his life.

That was right. He had Amelia. And now that the two of them were getting married, I decided to move in with my mom up in Forks, its small-town status be damned.

It wasn't that I hated Amelia. Nor was it that my father had become increasingly rude, violent, or abusive ever since he met her. It was just what was to be expected of him, knowing his personality. With the introduction of his supposed "love of his life," my father was encased in an almost childlike glee. Amelia was wonderful, Amelia was perfect, Amelia was the most saintly and gorgeous woman on planet Earth, didn't you just know it? All of her flaws were gently put to the airbrush. Her general attitude of indifference or downright dislike towards me was always ignored, and I was always too guilty imagining my father's reaction to my rejection of her to alert him outright.

I had been under the impression that I, his beloved daughter and only child, would somehow cause him to push away his happiness with her. His elation would disappear, or he would _force _it to disappear, because of any hesitance or wariness on my part. I didn't want that. Amelia was catty and mean to me, sure, but I could deal with it for the sake of my father because no matter how rude she was to me she was almost doubly sweet to him. And it was assuredly genuine. I guess she felt threatened by me or something along those lines that was apparently common in step mothers and biological relations or whatever.

No, what really spurred my decision to pack it up and leave was when I suggested the idea in the first place and my father agreed without a doubt, almost eagerly. He didn't get it. He didn't sense my discomfort, or was too wrapped up in his new life to care. Those tears shining in his eyes were a product of my telling him exactly what the problem was this morning in my fit of frustration at his absolute carelessness and his _just not getting it. _I had nearly thrown my bag in his face with a loud curse and uncharacteristically listed everything wrong with this new home he was building and why I wanted to just up and leave.

I think he got the picture that he wasn't supposed to agree so quickly and had been periodically protesting ever since, but it didn't matter. This morning cemented my decision, once and for all. City versus countryside living were nothing in the face of the combined dislike and ignorance I'd have to face in my old home.

Once again, my father pleadingly attempted to break me out of my decision.

"Dolly, you don't—you shouldn't have to feel like you have to do this." He used his nickname for me.

Once again, I had to take a deep breath to quiet my anger at him, at Amelia, at myself...at this whole situation. Maybe if I could have summoned the courage to speak to him about it earlier...maybe it wouldn't have escalated into _this_, where his default mode when it came to me was "ignore" or "Amelia."

"No. Sorry, but...I do." It was hard for me to keep myself from calling him "father" in that cool, detached way I seemed to use in my head. He was no longer just "Daddy" or "Dad" to me. I'd stopped using those words a year ago, when he was finally thinking about proposing to Amelia, around the time I realized that this new ignorant father was seemingly permanent.

I could not, however, restrain whatever else tumbled from my mouth.

"I want to go. Ever since you got married, I've been wanting to go. Maybe you didn't get it earlier." I faced him fully, my face feeling flat and devoid of the expression that was pinched in my words, my throat.

"You dated her for two years. I was okay with that. Seeing how happy she made you...I was more than okay with that; I was glad. But then it was different. You were always happier when we spent time together, but suddenly we didn't go anywhere together. Hardly a word passed from your mouth without the name 'Amelia' in them somewhere, and this was when you bothered to talk to me at all.

"Do you remember our movie nights? They became less and less frequent until they stopped altogether a year and a half ago. Do you remember all those times I tried asking you for help on that project I failed but didn't get it because of your date nights, or you shopping trips, or your asking for gift advice?"

My voice began to warble towards the end, but I plunged on because honestly, this was the last time I was planning on seeing him for a long time and I needed to get this off my chest. I needed him to understand and to feel sorry, to feel something other than this stupid obligatory guilt.

"You probably think that I'm being selfish, that you were just trying to enjoy yourself with your newly realized life or whatever. The truth is, once Amelia walked into your life it was like you wanted to forget me. You wanted to forget your past failure with Mom and just move on, start over, but here I am: walking, talking evidence of that previous life. And if you're gonna keep trying to push me away because of that, I'm not gonna stick around and just watch. So yeah, I have to go. If I can't depend on you, then I'm just going to have to stick it out with Mom instead."

Tears were stinging at the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I stared hard at my father, daring him to respond, to start denying every truth I'd just spoken. Instead, he didn't offer resistance, simply nodding once as if understanding the explanation to global warming or something. Did he even see the problem? Or was he merely agreeing to stop my being difficult?

I breathed in deeply through my nose, memorizing the warmth and the familiar taste of the air before having to leave it. The bitter realization that my father was a coward was making me lose the battle against crying, fast.

The rest of the ride was tense and silent, a half-mumbled farewell on both of our parts before I boarded the flight that would take me to the airport in Port Angeles in a matter of six hours. And then my mom would arrive to drive me down to Forks itself, which was another hour away from the airport. The long flight stretched before me as I laboriously listened to my iPod and ruminated on my anger some more.

I was altogether not in the greatest of moods when I finally touched down at five P.M. Texas time, but seeing my mom's brightened face after what seemed like such a long time put a grateful smile on mine. Sure, flight costs and hassle had slowed down the amount of time I could spend with her, but at the end of the day she was still my mom, and she still loved me. In fact, she was nothing except supportive of my decision to move up with her through all those calls of me begging to. She knew about the situation with my father and she was more than ready to have, in her words, "her fair share of her Leah."

She sounded saddened to think of my father's behavior, but something about her pitying smiles and insipid, too-sweet comforting gave me the impression that she wasn't all that surprised. Nevertheless, I rushed into my mom's embrace the second I saw her, and she was understanding enough to fill the rest of the trip to Forks with inane catch-up chatter than to to press me about how things were with my father.

With the arrival at her house I pulled my single suitcase out of the back of her police cruiser and lugged it to my room at the top of the stairs. My mother was the resident police chief of Forks, and that she picked me up in the cruiser pointed to the fact that she probably had to make time to do so while on shift, a realization that made my excitement at seeing her in person again be placed alongside a deep fondness.

I busied myself with scoping out my room before popping downstairs to thank my mom again for all that she had done for me. It was an okay size, a bit smaller than the room I left in Southlake, but I realized that a single woman on a police chief's income probably wouldn't need nor afford the vast amount of space in the large house I left, courtesy of the money made by my surgeon father. As it was, I was somewhat surprised she even kept a room for me in this house, though I was just grateful that there were no complications.

The walls were painted a light shade of lavender, and up against the west wall was a full-size bed decked out in a whimsical matching quilt. A small wooden desk was pushed against the opposite wall with a brand-new computer sitting atop it, something I guessed my mom had purchased in anticipation of my moving in. There was a door that lead to a private bathroom next to the desk, and a medium-sized window looking out at the land behind the house in the wall directly facing the door. I shoved my suitcase next to the bed, promising to unpack everything and put it away properly but knowing that I was more likely to put it off until tomorrow night, the day before the start of my junior year at Forks High School. I walked over to the window and placed my hand on the glass, feeling the slightly cooled material.

It was strange. This was August, the height of heat in Texas and here it was only grazing eighty degrees. The sky looked a bit overcast as well, a peaky cream color totally unlike the brilliant blue gaze of the open skies of home. I looked down over the land, which was also different in that it was actually alive. A deep, calming green surrounded the house like the lands of some fairy tale forest, the trees that signaled the start of the forest easily quadrupling in size over the highest trees in Texas. I couldn't even see the tops from this second-floor window. They were like skyscrapers, but instead of being glass-plated these natural wonders were jeweled in an entirely new but equally wondrous way.

The sheer height of the imposingly large amounts of trees in this place made me feel frighteningly small, as did the seemingly uncontrollable sense of the nature around here. I couldn't see any other houses through the gaps in the trees, which made me think that there really was a miles-long forest right behind our house.

Something about that thought put me on edge. With a shiver, I withdrew my hand from the window. I focused on setting up the essentials from my suitcase, starting with the toiletries. I entered the bathroom with a toiletry bag in my hands only to be faced with a stark image of myself illuminated with the light coming from the bathroom window.

I paused before my reflection, studying myself not like all teenage girls do. I was searching my face for traces of the strange fear that I just felt.

My lips were slightly pale, but my dark skin was physically incapable of losing color. I seemed to look a bit sallow under this pale light, though, and my eyes were tinged with red and slightly puffy from crying earlier. I hastily swiped at my face with some sink water, dried it on a hand towel, and examined it again, this time as critically as normal.

My most striking feature, I thought, was my eyes. I inherited exactly the shape of my father's eyes in a deep black that stood out starkly against my bronze skin. The round largeness of my eyes made me look years younger than a lot of other girls who were my age. My cheekbones were high but flat, like my mom's, with a somewhat smaller version of her long, thin nose above a pair of narrow but full lips.

Although I received a lot of her features, my mom still looked like a prouder, darkly elegant version of me with her super-long curly hair and her thin face while I could be called "cute" at best. My hair was straighter, darker, and cut into a shorter hairstyle for practicality that always seemed to spike up in weird places without my styling it. There was nothing graceful or noble about my looks; I wasn't very statuesque like either of my parents, being an average five foot five. And while my mom was naturally model-thin, years of a jogging habit ensured that my figure never reached "thin" proportions. I wasn't fat. But there was just nothing at all distinctive about me.

I looked away from myself with a sigh, satisfied with the routine examination and hurriedly unpacked. I only ever finished putting away half of my clothes before I ate a talkative dinner with Mom and went to bed, resolving to finish the rest at least by the end of the week.

The first night in Forks was eerily quiet. I had to turn on the fan for some white noise before I could sleep; I was so used to the constant loud chirping of thousands of crickets and june bugs.

When I woke up the next morning, Mom's voice woke me up from downstairs.

"Leah, honey, wake up! I've got something for you before I head up into town!"

I grumbled obligingly into my pillow before she called up again.

"And make yourself presentable, we've got company!" That sent me scurrying even though, by my usual time, it was more like six in the morning.

I wondered who she could have invited over and for what purpose. I didn't rightly remember any of Mom's close friends, and anyway, it had been a good three and a half years since I was here. My stays were always a spotty few weeks at most, so there was also nobody I was particularly close enough to to have invited over either.

I came down the stairs to find Mom dressed presumably to run groceries, talking with her back facing me to a guy whose face was covered by her position. I slowed my step and combed a hand through my hair.

"...Oh, and this is her now. Lee! Come here and introduce yourself." My Mom turned towards me, beckoning, and now I could see the man standing behind her, even if I didn't know who he was.

It was a guy who appeared around my age, standing awkwardly by the front door like he'd been cornered by my enthusiastic mom. He was medium height, a little taller than Mom, with tan skin and blue-black hair that framed his boyish face in an unkempt style. His body was thin in the awkward-teenager way, his shorts and graphic t-shirt hanging off of his frame a little too much for him to be merely slender. His expression was nervous over a pair of slightly slanted dark eyes as I approached with a cautious smile.

"I'm Leah Clearwater.'" My hand was stuck out. The guy's hesitance to return the gesture caused my confidence to deflate just a bit. "Um, I just moved here from Texas to live with my, uh, mom." I pointed obviously at Mom, the only living being in the room that I could possibly be referring to.

At least I wasn't babbling...yet.

The black-haired boy gave me a disarmingly goofy grin, finally shaking my hand with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Yeah, I could tell. You've got a bit of an accent there," he laughed. "I'm Jacob Black. My dad's Billy. He and Chief Clearwater ar—were—used to be, um, well, they hung out a lot." Jacob flashed an anxious smile at my mom, while I looked at her curiously. Her smile didn't change, but she looked tense at the mention of the man. Under our combined scrutiny, she jumped into the conversation.

"Yeah, and after realizing that you were gonna be staying here with me with no car of your own to drive, I decided to call in an old favor and got a you a nice, sturdy ol' truck." Her smile became more natural as the subject changed. I could feel my eyes widen. A truck? Really?

"Anyway, Jake here was nice enough to bring the thing all the way down from the reservation, so say thank you."

Jacob blushed a little under my mom's praise. I smiled brightly at him. "Thanks, Jacob. And thanks for the car, Mom. It's...I really appreciate it."

I thought of Southlake, and how I was so used to my father shuffling me everywhere if it wasn't within walking distance. Of course, with the large sprawl of the place and its general removal from the big cities, I'd kind of need a car. I wondered how much my mom paid for it, and whether the purchase of both a car and a computer was reasonable for her budget or whether I was being a hassle. It would make me feel really guilty to find out that she spent like half of her savings on these things just because of me. And if that was the case, I resolved myself to get a job to be able to buy any other necessities on my own.

That kind of stuff always looked good on a college application anyway, right?

Mom was grinning at me, clearly pleased with her choice. Jacob shuffled from foot to foot rather shyly.

"Well don't just stand around here! Go take a look at it before I leave!" Mom laughed congenially before ushering Jacob into the kitchen.

"Now you. You aren't gonna leave here without proper compensation. C'mon and have breakfast with us, honey."

"Yes ma'am," Jacob mumbled sheepishly, though he didn't make any move to protest. I giggled a little behind my hand at his polite attitude in the face of my mom's insistence before leaving to check out the car.

When I opened the door and stepped outside, it took me a few moments to realize that it was raining. The water fell down in tiny, mist-like particles more akin to thick humidity than actual rain. I glanced up at the sky through the liquid. What little was exposed through the web of branches was a deep, milky indigo, as if a bottle of thick artists' paint had been spilled and left to mix with the cream-colored sky from yesterday. The rain also made the atmosphere a little cooler. I tugged my sleeveless summer shirt a little closer to my body, but decided that I didn't need a coat if I was only going to be out here for a few minutes.

I circled around the front stoop to the side drive that put the garage parallel to the back of the house and saw the car immediately. It was parked a little carelessly behind Mom's silver sedan, but that wasn't what caused my gasp.

I loved it.

It was like looking at a piece of art. The model was a Chevy pick-up truck from either the fifties or sixties, but someone had obviously given the thing a lot of attention recently. The truck had been painted a deep red, swirling in a thick shine because it had been waxed to perfection. The headlights and side mirrors were curiously round, reminding me of magnifying glasses that had been used on some glamorous art project. I approached the vehicle and ran my hand along the side of it, peeking into a window at the inside. The upholstery was in tip-top shape as well, a tan leather that was obviously used but with care. The pleasant, nostalgic scent of tobacco and peppermint wafted gently out of the interior through windows partially rolled down, and I breathed in deeply.

With the lingering scent of pine and cleanliness in the rain, the combined smells reminded me of my grandfather. He used to live here when I visited until his death almost ten years ago, and every time I would be curled into bed listening to a scary story during the storms, his scent would wash over me along with the inevitable cup of cocoa and the smell of laundry detergent from my oft-washed Bear. Directly after his funeral, I spent the time with my mom in his old room, where those smells still remained as if he had never left. It was a few months after that that Mom moved into this house, with one fewer room.

The thoughts and memories that swirled in my head brought a smile to my face. I rested my forehead on the window glass before I went back inside.

I entered the kitchen to find Mom attempting to persuade Jacob to stay a little longer.

"Sorry Chief Clearwater, but I gotta get home. I promised my dad that I'd only drop off the car and, well, y'know."

Mom looked a bit crestfallen, but perked up in a second. "Well, maybe you can call him! Our phone's right here—"

"Mom, leave him be," I said. "Can't you see that he doesn't wanna stay?"

Jacob shot me a grateful half-smile. I snickered once more at his sheepishness around Mom.

"I'm sure he's got things to do, anyway."

Mom shook her head with a smile. "You mean like the things I have to do that I keep putting off? I should get going, now that you mention it."

"Yep." I gave her a cheesy smile. She ruffled my hair before grabbing her keys.

"Jake, honey, you're welcome to stay if you'd like to, but Lee isn't going anywhere if you'd feel like hanging out sometime..." she suggested. Jacob was already at the door.

"Sure, I'd love to, Chief Clearwater. Um, it was nice meeting you Leah."

"Likewise. Oh! And thanks for the car. It's really great," I called after him. He only nodded once more before leaving.

After I was sure he was out of earshot, I asked "How exactly does he plan on getting home?"

"He's got a friend nearby that he plans on hitching a ride with," Mom replied.

I thought about the drizzle outside and how it might worsen, but it seemed to me that Jacob had no problem with the weather, so I let it go.

"Do you really like the car, Lee?"

"Sure, Mom. It's great. And if a teenage guy has no problems driving it, then neither will I."

Mom nodded, what looked like relief passing over her features. I didn't know why she would think that I wouldn't like it, though...

"I just wasn't sure of the kind of car you were used to in Southlake..." she trailed off somewhat uncertainly, and I could hear the unfinished sentence:_ "...under the budget your father's money can afford."_

I laughed. "Mom, I didn't even have a car in Southlake, relax. I just learned to drive last year; I only got my license in June."

She visibly loosened, a wide smile reappearing. "Okay, then kiddo. I'm gonna go run some last-minute errands in town, which means I'll be gone most of the day. So you're free to read, watch TV, whatever. Keep your cellphone on, okay?"

I nodded.

"Love you, Mom."

"See you later." And with that, she was gone.

I busied myself with unpacking some more before I realized with frustration that most of what I had was not at all suited to the wet, cold weather of Forks. Then after a poorly self-made lunch of toast and cheese, I messed around on the computer for a while, setting up my preferences and whatnot.

Around three, the rain finally stopped, and I wondered if I was allowed to drive around town. I tried calling Mom two or three times, but I guessed she didn't get reception in the stores or her phone was turned off. Thinking it wasn't a really big deal, I decided to explore a little with my trusty smart phone GPS at my side, courtesy of my father when I turned fifteen.

I found a gas station, the school, two or three Mom and Pop grocery stores, and a few places to eat. There wasn't much else but by the time I made it home it was already six. I waited around for Mom for a little while longer before disappearing upstairs to re-read my favorite bookfor the fiftieth time. The _Harry Potter _series was the only one I'd decided to bring with me, and the rest of my beloved bookshelf was residing in my empty room in Southlake, along with a half-empty closet full of my clothes and junk.

Mom popped back in at eight with several winter clothes for me that she'd scourged for at the mall. We ate dinner and chatted before I made it to bed early at around ten for the first day of school the following day.

. . .

The next day I woke up several minutes earlier than my alarm with a swirling feeling in my stomach, something I immediately identified as nervousness. It only took me about twenty minutes to get up, brush my teeth, throw on some jeans and a blazer-t-shirt combo, wash my face and apply a little make up before I was as ready as I'd ever be for school. After futilely attempting to tame my unruly cowlicks for what seemed like the tenth time, I gave up and sat myself at the breakfast table downstairs where I stared at the oven and tried to stamp down the growing pit in my stomach.

I ate an apple for breakfast and waited another half an hour before leaving for school.

Having located the school yesterday, I got there in less than a five minutes' ride. I parked in the front, where I hoped was nearest to the front office. I stepped out of the car and into the thick drizzle outside, and noted with some apprehension that Forks always seemed to be perpetually hovering between this state of cloudy mid-afternoon and dusk. The industrial lights in the parking lot were turned on in this dense, dark gloom, looking more like seven o'clock at night rather than eight in the morning.

I was immediately grateful when I stepped into the heated building, and even more grateful that the architect of the place wasn't on crack and had placed the front office in the most obvious and helpful place: the front.

I entered the little beige area, waiting patiently to catch the attention of the busy-looking secretary behind the desk. After a moment's worth of awkward silence, she finally prompted, "Yes, how may I help you?"

"I'm Leah—um, Leah Clearwater. I'm the new student here?"

The blonde woman's eyes brightened at my last name. "Clearwater, right? Yeah, I've heard about you. You're Chief Clearwater's daughter!" She grinned at her deduction when I nodded.

"I would have been able to spot you even if you hadn't told me your last name. You look a lot like your mother. She's a very pretty woman," the secretary complimented sincerely.

I smiled with embarrassment at the attention, even if I didn't wholly agree. Yes, I looked like my mother. But somehow, she was so much more than just me—hers was the kind of natural beauty that would never be achievable by me. I always left the house with make up on, and I didn't think my mom even did her hair on a regular basis.

"Yeah, that's me. So, uh, do you have a schedule for me? Maybe a map of the school?"

The woman chuckled as if I'd just told a joke. I hoped she didn't just give me directions; I was _pretty_ _bad_ with directions, hence the reason that I always carried my GPS with me wherever I went.

"Sure, sweetie. Here you go." She handed me a slip with my schedule on it. I tried not to look too dismayed at the lack of a school map on the paper.

"If you just follow the door numbers, most of the classes are branched off of a singular hallway," the blonde lady explained. "So it's not too difficult to find."

"Um, okay. Thanks."

I clutched my slip in one hand, my backpack slung over the shoulder of the other and made my way out of the office before I was called back.

"Where are you from, anyway, down south?"

"Texas, actually," I answered, once again resuming my leave.

"Well, you're accent's really cute, is all I'm saying."

I laughed again; more embarrassment. "Um, thanks."

My first class was Spanish, and I managed to both find the room _and _a willing guide to the rest of the school in that class. Jessica was her name, and she seemed nice enough, if not downright friendly. With her short stature and almost cartoonically exaggerated curly hair and round blue eyes, she was almost cute. She led me to my next two classes which we shared, and offered to sit next to me during lunch, an invitation that I gladly accepted. If I was going to live here, I might as well have made some friends. Certainly better friends than the ones I had back home—the people at my old school were certainly nothing I would miss. It wasn't like I was some kind of loner, but what friends I did have were a little on the insincere side, dropping each other at the first sign of popularity. Maybe there would be less of a clique factor in a small school?

I craned my neck, looking for any clear semblance of the Pretties, Populars, and Jocks tables amid the cafeteria crowd, but mostly it just looked like groups of people who happened to be friends. Sure, some of the tables were more well-dressed than the others, but I chalked that up to similar interests more than clique-like tendencies. Anyway, none of the more fashionable girls were being stared at like they were goddesses among the mere mortals.

I let out a small sigh of relief, until my eyes skimmed the corner of the cafeteria hall and saw _them._ Suddenly, my idea of a clique-less school was shattered. Why else would they sit together? Why else would they ignore all around them as if somehow superior?

Jessica caught me eying their table as we entered the cafeteria, and she gave me a meaningful look, signaling the no-doubt juicy gossip that was about to be hurled my way.

"Those are the Cullens," she said in a low whisper, as if the name was somehow self-explanatory.

"Um, is that the name of their clique or is that what they call emos up here?" I asked dumbly. Miraculously, Jessica thought I was making a joke and giggled a bit before returning to her previous "informative" tone.

"They aren't emo. Well, at least I don't think so. And they aren't in a clique-'Cullen' is their name. As in, they're Alice, Edward, and Emmet Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale."

"Huh. They don't look related," I said, my eyes now set on closely examining these strange-looking "Cullens." The five of them were sitting around a table—well, no, I wouldn't use the word "sitting"—it looked more like they were posing to me. Their positions were rather stiff and awkward, like they were playing a game of freeze tag and everybody had lost. And although they were all a ghastly pale color, their individual features couldn't be more different.

There were two girls and three guys. Both of the girls were like polar opposites of each other: one of them was a tiny, jet-black haired, doll-featured girl whose small face peaked out coquettishly beneath her edgy pixie-cut (a look that I've been trying to perfect for years only to fail, by the way—my features aren't cute enough to pull it off); the other was a tall, slim, blonde bombshell with hair that spilled down her back in a Hollywood glamor style and narrow, thin features with smaller but squarer eyes than the girl who sat next to her. She was quite possibly one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen in my life. No, wait, they both were.

Suddenly feeling slightly insecure, I looked towards the guys sitting at the table. There was a really built boy with dark hair, the same pale skin, and a boyish face curved into what seemed like a permanent grin. The boy next to him looked more sullen, but in a dramatic way, with red-brown hair and a brooding face, his features handsomely carved. His body matched his looks: less obviously athletic, more lean.

Then there was a blonde guy who faced the crowd with the look of a lackadaisical lean in his body that seemed far too contrived to be natural. His face was less slim than the copper-haired boy's but not as boyishly young as the bigger one, a defined jaw that his gold hair barely brushed past in a messy style. His face was strikingly handsome like his supposed brothers', but again in its own unique way that made them look completely unrelated. His mouth was slick under a defined, tapered nose, and it twitched into an immediate smirk when his eyes caught me staring in that brief moment.

I tried to play it cool, like I hadn't been examining each one of them intently with uncontainable curiosity and averted my eyes. I could feel my face burn with more embarrassment, though I thanked my Mom's genetics into giving me dark skin that didn't easily display any flush.

I surreptitiously glanced back at the blonde guy only to see that his eyes hadn't left me, although whereas before they had glimmered in some kind of arrogant amusement, there was a dark, unidentifiable look that haunted them now that made me quickly throw myself into conversation with Jessica.

"They look factory produced," I said nonchalantly. "Like mannikins." ...As if this excused their perfect looks and the natural way probably every human being was drawn to them.

"What, is their dad planning on opening a model-slash-actor agency or something?"

I looked once more at their table, trying to see if they somehow heard my low sarcasm over the tens of voices of the others in the room. They were all laughing, but it seemed like it was from some joke that the bigger guy had said.

Jessica tittered. "Actually, Dr. Cullen adopted them all or something. But I bet he could've made babies like them—the doctor's pretty hot himself."

I wrinkled my nose. _"How_ old is he, Jessica? Like, forty?"

She giggled again. "No, he's only in his early thirties, but I swear he looks twenty-something."

She plunked her lunch tray on a table somewhere near the middle of the room, next to a few other kids I recognized from my grade. I followed suit, being placed next to a guy who I was sure was named Mike.

"Hey guys. This is Leah Clearwater. She moved here from Texas to live with her mom, Police Chief Clearwater. Say hi," Jessica introduced. I sat rather awkwardly as there was a chorus of enthusiastic response from the kids there.

"That's Mike," Jessica began, pointing to the sandy-blonde haired boy next to me; "Eric," an Asian guy with a cool spiky hair cut and a shirt that had a bright picture of Mario on it; "Lauren," another blonde girl with green eyes and a wary disposition; "and Angela," a tall girl with long, light brown hair and a shy but sunny smile. "We were just talking about the Cullens," the bubbly girl announced.

"Ooh, did you tell her about your rejection yet?" Lauren snickered. Jessica went a stammering beet-red and I felt a twinge of sympathy for her.

"Jessica asked Edward," Mike gestured to the copper-haired one. "out on a date last year. And then she was soundly shot down."

"Not really!" Jessica squeaked. "He was really nice about it and all..." Her words were mumbled pitifully, and I wondered whether she was even over him yet at all.

I glanced at Lauren, who was smiling. "C'mon, Jess, we're just joking. And you know it was a dare—I bet that's why he turned you down. He probably heard us cackling about it in the halls."

Jessica still looked outrageously embarrassed and had an air of dejection. "It's because he's dating Alice," she said. "He told me when I asked why."

"Alice?" I looked back to the one named Edward. He didn't look particularly attentive to any one girl...maybe he was single now? Then I remembered when Jessica had rattled their names off earlier.

"Oh, wait—not Alice as in his sister? Please tell me that there is another girl named Alice here." I shuddered at the thought. Sure, they weren't related by blood...but _still. _They had grown up together, hadn't they? The thought of dating someone I grew up with and for all intents and purposes thought of as a brother felt a bit squicky to me.

Angela shrugged.

"They aren't related, right? And it's not like they look alike. I think she looks better with him as his girlfriend than as a sister, anyway."

"Bit weird though," Lauren agreed. With a small beat of silence around the table, the conversation suddenly steered away from the Cullens and back to me. Even as I answered the slew of questions, though, there was something niggling at the edge of my mind, something that caused the rest of my thoughts not to stray far away from these mysterious Cullens.

When it was time to go to AP Biology, I was led by Angela. She didn't say much apart from a few more polite questions, and I could sense well enough that her lack of conversation stemmed more from shyness rather than just a general dislike of me. She gave off the impression that she couldn't stand to say a bad word about anyone, evidenced by her quick defense of Edward and Alice's relationship.

We got to the biology lab and she took a seat next to someone she already seemed to know. I guess she felt bad for ditching the new kid, though, because the second she did so she shot me an apologetic smile. I nodded and gave a reassuring smile back. I probably would have chosen a friend over the new girl, myself. And anyway, I could deal with sitting with someone else. I wasn't that shy.

I looked around the lab for someplace to sit and deposit my heavy bag, finding only one open seat. And—just my luck—it was right next to the blonde guy, one of the Cullens that we'd been gossiping about all lunch. I sighed at the typical nature of the scenario before dumping my stuff next to him and taking a seat at the black-surfaced lab station. He didn't even look up.

I felt more than a bit awkward. But when he caught my eye, I forced myself to smile sheepishly at him. He stared at me for what seemed like an agonizingly long time. I could tell he was hesitating about something, his eyes flicking from my bag to my high-heeled feet to my hair to my face before looking into mine. I was immediately startled by their color, feeling the cold finger of dread run down my spine.

They were an unnatural violet, but so intense that the irises appeared to be glowing in the fluorescent lights. Even as he returned my smile with a deliberate friendliness, an unnameable panic gripped me, choking me. His chalky skin was exaggerated now, up close, but apart from the pallor of his skin I could detect no real flaws in his appearance. He did not look real.

I once again searched the room, this time desperately. I knew that there wouldn't be another seat for me, however I couldn't stop myself from irrationally desiring one. Irrational. I was being irrational.

I looked back at the gorgeous man sitting beside me and internally argued with myself that there was nothing to freak out about. Just because he was unreasonably attractive didn't make him dangerous...there was no reason for me to feel the way I did, like all of my senses were set to high alert. Immediately as I thought that, a wave of calm control washed over me. I was suddenly myself again.

Mystified but dismissive, I brushed off the series of unanswerable questions that plagued my mind. There was no sense in trying to pick apart my reactions. There were only three possible explanations. Since I was neither paranoid nor a drug addict, I chalked up my bizarre behavior to an exaggerated PMS and that was the last I'd thought of it, because I was then distracted by something else entirely.

"Hello, there. You're the new girl, right?"

I blinked, turned my head, and stared at him. His eyes failed to stir any kind of crazy reactions in me, which, in my mind, only further proved the PMS theory.

"Um, yeah. I'm Leah Clearwater." I was more than surprised by the buttery accent that smoothed his voice: he was from Texas. Or at least he had the accent.

"Jasper Hale, nice to meet you." He flashed another smile at me, but instead of feeling disturbed it flustered me. Against my will, of course.

"Uhm, sorry if it's rude of me to ask, but your accent..."

His smile became wider. "Yep, I grew up in Texas."

"No way. Where from?"

There was another hesitant pause on his part before I hastily explained my sudden interest.

"Well, I was just wondering, uh, y'know, because I just moved from, um, Southlake. I mean, I don't know if you can tell by the way I talk, but, uh," Oh great. I was babbling. He sent me another charming grin.

"If you're so curious, it's Fort Worth. Close to Southlake, I think, but I lived there before the place became as big as it is now." Man, was he charming. I looked like a total dork, babbling about Texas, but he carried on like I'd just delivered an eloquent speech about the place. He even threw in the misty eyes for effect.

I was just happy that I knew someone from my favorite state now. Maybe we could even bond over our love for the place! Of course, that was sarcasm, because once the lecture started, there was nothing to talk about. I had to listen to every word of the "first day of school" orientation BS. And that weird antsy feeling had resettled in the pit of my stomach.

I clutched the straps of my backpack, feeling vaguely nauseated without even knowing why. After a while, I glanced back at Jasper to realize that my neighbor had gone back to imitating a statue, his features curiously set in a grimace.

Hm. Was he PMSing too?

Within the next ten minutes of class, the pain became unbearable, and I had to ask the teacher, Mr. Banner, to visit the nurse's office. Mike, the boy who'd sat next to me during lunch, nicely volunteered to lead the way. At first, he tried to chat me up, but after I patiently explained that I felt like I was going to blow at any possible second, he was understandably silent.

Upon arriving, the nurse took one look at my sallow face and fished out the thermometer to take my temperature. Mike was sent back to class as I held the stick in place under my tongue, and I attempted to wave him good-bye as best I could under the situation. He half-smiled.

"I hope you feel better, Leah." And with that, he left.

The thermometer beeped its results, and the nurse motioned for me to hand it over. With a shake of the head, she said, "Dear, you've got a fever. You need to go home."

I felt too dizzy to be surprised. Heat was washing over me like a menopausal hot flash. My tongue and head seemed like they weighed twice the amount of my body. I had no idea when I'd begun to feel so sick, but the sensations were hitting me like a ton of bricks.

The nurse looked at me appraisingly. "Hmm, you don't look too good. Do you think you can drive, or do you want me to call your mom?"

"I can just...drive home, I guess," I breathed, but it was a struggle. I could go to the nearest bathroom, quickly puke and get it out of my system, and then drive home, hopefully feeling better than I did now. Mom was officially on patrol, and I didn't want to bother her on the very first day of school. The concerned woman swept her eyes down me once more, and I really didn't see how I could possibly anything other than miserable when I felt so damn bad. My body began to tremble, but she reluctantly released me.

I was thinking that it was a good thing when I rushed to the bathroom and vomited the contents of my stomach out into the porcelain toilet. My organs feeling sufficiently deployed, I took one look at the remains of my apple bobbing along with the half-digested corn dog I'd had for lunch and disgustedly flushed the thing down. Although I was empty of food, my stomach still prickled with nausea. It felt like a hole had been carved into the bottom of my stomach with an icicle.

I swept a hand over my sweaty forehead, rinsed my mouth and washed my hands thoroughly, and walked to my truck as fast as I could. I made the quick journey home as best as I could through a mind-clogging fog of heaviness, miraculously appearing in one piece though the second I stepped out onto the driveway, I puked again.

I dragged my body upstairs and took a cold shower despite the cool weather, though it felt like I was turning the water to steam with my hot flesh. Every movement was slick and sweaty and shiver-inducing, like thousands of live bugs crawled along my skin. I wanted to rip it off, to scrub it until it bled, anything to stop this battering ram of feelings that threatened to overwhelm me.

I shrugged on a flimsy tank top and panties and was too saturated with heat to bother with anything else. I flipped the fan on desperately, though it did nothing to stop the swelling wave of alarm that threatened to consume me. This was like no other fever I'd experienced before. I felt delirious with panic. I almost stumbled twice on my way to the bed and I made it as far as a foot away before I promptly succumbed to the black that lingered at the edge of my vision.

I passed out.

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A.N./ I swear there's a reason for making Leah Texan instead of from Arizona besides shamelessly plugging my own (and favorite) state...I just can't think of one right now.


	3. Alarm

**A.N.:** Well, here it is, guys. Can I just say that I was overjoyed with the amount of positive response to the first chapter? I spent like the next two days obsessively refreshing my email page, haha.

To answer Unknown Angel's review: the first chapter was really a kind of prelude to this story. I wanted to have the events of Twilight in the minds of the people reading and in particular Leah's reactions to some of the same things Bella faced to sort of highlight their vast differences in terms of personality. This chapter is really where the differences in story start to come into play.

And just throwing this out there, Alice's character is by far what I enjoyed writing the most about this chapter. I really wish more people characterized her as a more flawed person. In my mind, at least, she seems to be one of the most immature people in the Cullen clan and she really likes annoying people, two traits that you could really have fun with in an Alice story...but I digress.

Enjoy and give me your thoughts in the review box!

**DISCLAIMER: **Nope, not mine. Twilight and all characters therein belong to Stephenie Meyer.

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**2. Alarm**

I woke up and it was like being dragged up from the very depths of the ocean. My face was pressed into my pillow, my mouth filled with a dry paste that tasted like bile. The fan was whirring incessantly overhead and it took some time for my memories to resurface. Then I cringed, reflexively expecting that heavy-headed sensation to return to me with the movement. Instead, there was nothing. I was cured.

I smiled in gratitude, closing my eyes momentarily before I hopped out of bed. I looked around the room for the time, noticing that though night had yet to descend, the skies outside my window were glowing with the light that was trapped behind the murky clouds. With the smeared silhouette of trees standing tall against it, it reminded me of the blue light that bled from computer screens through gaps in a curtain of shadow. I held my hand up to the window, unsurprised when I had to squint to see its outline. The digital clock on the windowsill read eight-seventeen. If I'd come back at around two-thirty, then I'd been asleep for roughly six hours. The information brought a frown to my face.

Wow. In my experience, fevers and nausea didn't just disappear that fast. Maybe it was just food poisoning from that corn dog I had from lunch?

Once more, that swooping feeling of wrongness flew over me, and I pushed it away insistently. The only worse-case scenario I could think of that could have inspired all this vomiting was pregnancy, and I sure as hell wasn't pregnant. You could laugh all you wanted, but I was as careful as a surgeon during his own heart transplant when it came to boys. And by that I meant that I was still a virgin. Ha.

Not that I hadn't had a boyfriend before. It was just that I wasn't all too eager to jump into bed with some acne-ridden, over excited teenager without any protection. That, and I couldn't really say with much conviction that I'd ever felt particularly lustful towards any one guy. Hormones made me horny just like anyone, but there was never any boy I had in mind when I...worked through it.

Now with _that_ bitterness added to the already nasty flavor on my tongue, I hurried to the bathroom and brushed my teeth as thoroughly as possible, washing away the taste with mouthwash. Suddenly feeling famished and extremely thirsty, I pulled on some pajama shorts and ventured downstairs in an infinitely better mood.

...Only to rush back into my room again. Hovering at the foot of the stairs had been Jacob Black and who I assumed to be his father, a man who shared his looks remarkably apart from his heavy eyelids and longer hair. As I had stomped down the stairs with all the delicacy of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, naturally both of their heads swiveled in my direction. Jacob with the most unobstructed view promptly catching an eyeful of me in my skimpy, bra-less state. I was mortified. I decided that there was no _way _I was going to go back down there again, until Mom's frustratingly indifferent voice called for me to come back downstairs if I was feeling better and _be_ _polite._

I slapped my hands to my heated face in embarrassment before forcing myself into a pair of decent black jeans and a nice, violet, half-sleeved shirt. I splashed water over my face and removed the traces of sleep from my eyes with a bit of eyeliner. I also ran a comb through my hair but didn't feel like straightening it in the slightest. Consequently, although it was free of tangles, pieces stubbornly refused to lay flat and I still carried the evidence of bed-head with me back downstairs. This time around, I noticed that both Jacob and the older man had retreated farther into the living room. They must have just been arriving when I'd come out of my room.

Approaching much more quietly, I quickly surveyed the guests. Jacob looked virtually the same as earlier, wearing another graphic t-shirt and baggy jeans, but he seemed much more comfortable with the other guy around this time. That was probably just because instead of talking like an imitation of a machine-gun, my Mom was almost uncharacteristically reserved, occupying herself with politely engaging the older man in a conversation too quiet to hear from here. I could plainly see how awkward she was acting, though; her movements were quick and imprecise as she offered him and Jacob a chair, gestures too wild. She was on the verge of awkward silence.

I found it funny how our reactions to the same situation were virtually opposite. If that were me, I would have been babbling away, the favored topic of conversation being the drapes or how I found the idea of plastic fruit for decoration completely selfish. Once, while on a particularly bad date, I'd resorted to speculating over the purpose of the popcorn-like clusters on the ceiling.

With that completely unpleasant memory in head, I entered the living room.

Jacob was grinning when he saw me, probably replaying images of what he'd just seen me wearing in his mind. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Most likely, he wasn't even aware of how streaked with bed-sheet creases my face was or how messy and rooster-like my hair looked. Boys. Somehow, they were all so much less critical of girls than girls were of themselves. I peered closer into his face as I stood there, and, sure enough, I caught a hint of a blush. I felt a smile appear on my face before I could bite my lip and stop it.

"Hi, Jacob. Hello," I inclined my head politely at the older man; I didn't want to call him Mr. Black and be wrong. Mom's face looked relieved when I entered, probably saving her from that silence that I had predicted.

"Leah, this is Billy Black, Jacob's father and...well, my friend." I turned my head to him and smiled, even if my eyes narrowed a bit at the way Mom was behaving. The unnatural beat before she called him her friend made me think that she was about to say something else, but caught herself in time. I watched as Billy Black's kind expression faltered when she said it. Or maybe she'd backed out at the last moment...

"I invited myself over for dinner, Leah. I hope you don't mind," he said, his black eyes crinkling pleasantly with his words. I shook my head.

"No, it's no problem. I mean, I don't have homework or anything, so it's no trouble at all. Really."

Mom looked at me with an unreadable expression, and I wondered just what she was thinking. Was she expecting me to make up an excuse to get out of dinner with the Blacks? Honestly, I didn't mind. They seemed pretty nice. And he'd given me a pretty nice truck...

"Thanks for the truck again, Sir."

Mr. Black smiled at me with a hint of some tenderness I couldn't fathom. "Please, call me Billy."

I noticed Jacob frowning out of the corner of my eye as I nodded. Various small talk commenced as Billy asked me whether I was liking it here in Forks, how the school was going for me, and how the truck was running. I answered each question with my nice "talking to adults" voice, and sometimes this was all I heard in the small house. Although Mom and Jacob made some conversation around me and Billy, I got the sense that they were both watching the proceedings with wary eyes, though I had no idea why.

The tense atmosphere magnified, and it felt like one of those situations where everyone was in on it except for me. These frequent suspicious glances and the meaningless but unnecessarily polite small talk didn't signify any pleasant parting on the two "friends" part. I wondered what must have happened the last time they'd met. And the next hour was spent tiptoeing around the real issue, each one pretending their own ignorance to the extremely awkward air while I was forced to navigated blindly.

Thankfully, food was ready relatively quickly, allowing me to excuse myself for a second for some "fresh air" under the lie that I wasn't hungry. I stood in the stoop before the creaky front door, looking out at nothing in particular and for once grateful for the lack of sweltering heat in Forks. It gave me reprieve from the stifling air inside. I was still starving, but I knew that I could probably wolf down the leftovers after the Blacks left. I just had to play the waiting game.

There was a click behind me, and suddenly the dark space was blasted with a flood of yellow, artificial light. I looked behind me to realize that Jacob had flicked the porch light on and was leaving the house himself, the expression on his face telling me that he was looking to join me.

I smiled at him wryly, something that he returned with a nervous grin.

"It's awful in there," the boy suddenly blurted, side-glancing into the deep pocket of forest to the left.

"A fellow sympathizer?" My eyebrows raised in mock surprise.

"Ha, ha." He deadpanned. And then, "No, really, they practically forced me outta there. 'Why don't you go and talk to Leah, make sure she stays safe?'" He mocked his father with an exaggeratedly deep voice. I giggled and made a show of looking at his body, obviously lacking any serious muscle.

"Some help you'll be." I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, don't dis. I've got pretty mad thumb-wrestling skills," Jacob held the overly serious facade for all about two seconds before his smile broke through, rapidly on its way to becoming a trademark. I rolled my eyes with a smile and leaned back on the slats of the house, directly beneath the wall-lamp. The patch of shadow it cast on my face made me feel less exposed than standing under the single floodlight pitching up the darkness that seemed to consume the forest and all its activities at night.

"Soooo..." I said, deliberately casual in catching his attention. "What exactly d'you think they're talking about in there that we kiddies can't even be in the house for?"

Jacob waggled his eyebrows. "What else?" I made a disgusted face. "Eugh, that's, like, my _middle-aged mom _you're talking about in there!"

"And my middle-aged dad," he added thoughtfully, not in the least as disturbed as I was by the thought of a parent having sex literally _feet away _from him.

I glanced at the front door, its chipped wooden surface giving nothing away. I really was curious...but somehow the idea of Mom being involved with Billy had never occurred to me. Was that the cause for all of this, then? The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit. He must have showed up unannounced because he knew that if he'd informed Mom of his intentions earlier, she would have made sure that there was some kind of prior engagement to keep us busy tonight. I was well acquainted with Mom's skills with dodging, having grown up with a lot of my father's earlier, weekly desperate calls to the woman he still loved only to be brushed off as impersonally as possible.

But was she trying to keep me from him, or was she trying to avoid him herself?

I looked sideways at Jacob only to find him staring intently at me. I raised an eyebrow, and he smiled a bit sheepishly.

"Sorry, you just...well, honestly, you look a lot like someone I know," he explained lamely, scratching at the back of his head.

"Yeah nice try, kiddo, but I'm older than you." I glared at him playfully. He looked appropriately affronted.

"What? I wasn't hitting on you or anything! Jeez...ego much?" I giggled at him.

"Relax, dude. I was just kidding," I drawled, pushing myself off of the side of the house and into the light. Jacob looked at me skeptically, his eyes curiously reflecting the light like the two-toned wings of a beetle.

"How old are you, anyway?"

He was sincerely trying to pass the question off as casually as possible, and I just couldn't help it. I burst into my usual obnoxious laughter, simultaneously both startling and embarrassing the guy. He ducked his head with an abashed laugh, his face tinged with the slightest crimson in the distorting yellow lighting.

"I'll be seventeen in September," I managed to get out between snickers. He smiled winningly, apparent humiliation quickly forgotten. Hey, at least he was confident.

"Cool, I'm turning sixteen this January." He sidled away from his corner at the edge of the porch. I opened my mouth to reply when the sounds of shouting interrupted me. Both of our heads snapped to the house, where the voice of my mom rang clear enough to be distinguished as her's but was unfortunately rendered unintelligible by the walls. There was no reply from Billy, though the unnatural pauses in Mom's speech indicated that she was demanding answers when he had none to give.

I shared a bewildered look with Jacob, who seemed just as puzzled as I was.

"D'you think that maybe your earlier guess was right?" I asked lowly. Even though neither of them could probably hear us over my mom's furious yells, I felt the compulsion to whisper anyway. Jacob slowly shook his head, disbelief clearly written over his features.

"I had no idea. I just thought that they were old friends, yeah? And they'd had a falling out in the last couple of years... Jesus, I always thought that Dad was way too passive to make any kind of effort in a relationship. He only has a few friends, you know? And these are all the ones he's had for years...he doesn't make new ones easily."

I stared hard at the dark brown paint of the door, biting my lip and straining to hear exactly what was being said. "Yeah, that doesn't really do it for Mom, judging by how badly she's gone off..."

Jacob nodded. I crept a little closer to the door with hopes of listening in, but before I could press myself to the surface it was pushed open forcefully by none other than Mom. I looked at her face, trying to look innocent to the whole affair, but she seemed past the point of discrepancy. Her expression was the most furious I'd seen in _years_, frowns pulling whatever wrinkles she had in her relatively smooth skin down all at once. Her black eyes were more reflective than usual, layered with a film of unshed tears. I shrunk against a support pillar at the forefront of the porch as she sent a venomous glare into the house.

Billy Black came striding out seconds later, his face a mask of cool indifference, though I could see the angry hurt darkening his eyes and drawing lines at his mouth. His passiveness was obviously an exercise in patience. Nonetheless, he drew himself tall as he signaled for Jacob to follow him. He noticed me by the column, however, and mumbled a hasty, half-formed apology for the intrusion before Mom screamed at him.

"_Don't you dare talk to my daughter!"_ Her body shook with the amount of pure loathing that was expelled with that command. I jumped, my eyes wide and now fully directed at my mom. Billy simply followed her demand, staying silent but giving me a nod as he stalked off. Jacob smiled at me reluctantly, obviously struggling with his own astonishment. He looked almost apologetic.

"Sorry, Leah," he breathed as he brushed past me to join his father. I stared after their forms, stricken, until their car pulled out of our driveway. The glowing eyes of their car lights quickly disappeared into the blackness that lay beyond the moon's path of light, and I still remained blinking after them. When I turned back to confront Mom about what the hell just happened, I realized that she had already fled back inside. The front door was still wide open, a corridor fresh light and cool air left for all of the bugs out here.

I went inside and shut the door, briefly scanning the kitchen and living room for any clues to the fight. The area was exactly as I left it, with the exception of the remaining food laid out on the kitchen table. Remembering my earlier hunger, it was with a sour decision that I decided to pursue my burning curiosity rather than my equally aching stomach. Besides, the food wasn't going anywhere. Mom, on the other hand...

I tracked her down to her bedroom, where all manner of things from the comforters on the bed to the papers that I know had previously resided on her work desk had been scattered, I guessed from her rage. Though the room was covered in relative darkness, the light that threw itself out in spokes from the space between the closed bathroom door and the floor tipping me off to her location.

I rested my hand on the cool metal handle, inwardly steeling myself for whatever emotional trauma of Mom's I'd have to deal with.

I stood there longer than I should have. My ears had begun pulsing with the heavy beats of silence, until I could make out the beginning of high, hard sobs. My hand loosened, then fell away. I bit my lip, and looked away.

Something that had been at the fringes of my conscious was brought to the forefront of my realizations. In this unfamiliar place, my own mother was a virtual stranger to me. I guess I had always suspected that she put on this brave, sunny mask for me, whether in her voice over the phone or as she'd been acting these past few days. It wasn't hard for her to be a different person for two weeks or three weeks, the longest times I'd stay here when I was younger. It was also easy for her to shove away all of her own set of shortcomings under the carpet for however briefly I'd visit.

This incident with the Blacks made me see how much she must have hidden away from me. What she was still hiding away from me. And I turned away and walked from her door because I thought she wanted to hide this part of her, too.

I was unbelievably famished, but it was hard for me to swallow anything over the large and painful lump that had appeared in my throat. I ended up finished all of the leftovers. I halfheartedly did a poor job with the dishes, shoving them indelicately into the dishwasher and climbing back upstairs.

I wasn't tired at all, what with a six-hour head start on sleep. So I spent the rest of the night shamelessly listening to the most emo music on my iPod before I dropped off at some hazy point in the hours. I think the sky was already lightening at that point.

I was strangled awake by the blaring of the alarm clock and stumbled out of bed to turn the damn thing off. I got ready drowsily, peeling off the jeans and shirt I hadn't even bothered to change out of and shrugging on a pair of denim shorts and a long-sleeved black blouse. I haphazardly ran a brush through my messy tangles, once again doing nothing to prevent their sticking straight into the air. I quickly applied some eyeliner and mascara before running downstairs.

I skidded to a halt when I realized my mom's seated position at the kitchen table, arms crossed, face pensive. She looked up when she heard me, her black eyes boring holes into my own. There was a moment wrought with all the tension in a trampoline stretched to fit the sky. I was almost afraid to breathe. And I was really, really hungry... My stomach's gargling prompted a sheepish smile from me. Mom blinked as if she had just noticed me, her mouth quickly splitting into a quick, insincere smile. I guessed that she was still upset over last night and sat down next to her, pouring myself a bowl of cereal.

"Uh, you okay Mom? I mean you're hardly ever up to see me out."

Her expression was indecisive. "Honey, about last night—" she began, but I held up a hand.

"You don't have to say anything. Whatever happened, happened, and I wasn't here to know about it. I don't exactly expect you to tell me everything about your life outside of me, you know?" I plastered on a smile that felt forced. I wanted to tell her that I understood, but the truth of the matter was that I was insanely curious about what went on between her and Billy. And I was a coward. I was both afraid of her reaction, and, worse, the answer that I would get.

At least by Jacob's small admission, they must not have been involved for quite some time.

I chewed my cereal guiltily as Mom's expression melted into one of relief. Then her eyebrows furrowed.

"I got a call from your school yesterday telling me that you were sick. Are you okay?"

I shrugged. "Vomited a couple of times, but I guess it's passed. I fell asleep the second I came home," I admitted.

Her frown deepened. "Really? I felt your head when I came in at five... I thought you were just taking a nap."

"I suppose I got better by then." It looked like I was using crappy excuses to skip school now, but what else could I say?

Mom looked at me a little uncertainly. "If you get sick, honey, you should call me yourself. I can pick you up at any time of the day, okay? Your health means more to me than work. What if you got into a car accident because you were too sick?"

"But I didn't," I pointed out, quickly draining the last of the milk with a few sips and putting the dish in the sink.

"Still. Promise me you'll call me next time, okay?"

"Sure, Mom. I gotta go to school now," I replied flatly, taking my car keys off one of the key hooks by the door. I didn't have a backpack to take because I'd left it back in the biology room, and I now hoped that Mike or Angela had kept it safe.

I hopped out of the car at school with a sigh and looked up at the sky. Rainclouds once again peaked behind the edges of the eternal ocean of white mist that blanketed the heavens. The sun shone like a weak beam behind the thick layer of moisture and a dark shade loomed over the area. The rain began to fall as I entered the school, first a trickle and then a torrential downpour that beat against the walls and roof like hundreds of strikes on a drum. I found myself annoyed with the gloomy weather instead of treasuring its rarity like I did in Texas. Rainy days were far too common here.

I was relatively early to school, but by the time I requested and received another schedule for the day, most of my class had already been assembled in the gym. It was a tiny one compared to the athletic, fully-equipped and well-stocked place my old school could afford. This place was about one third the size...with a class that was roughly just as down-sized. The oddly bright lights clashed with the dim light filtering in from the windows set high into the walls. My eyes took a while to adjust, but when they did I saw both Angela and Jessica standing with their backs to the double-doors, craning their necks and probably looking for me. They were both already changed into gym clothes: a white shirt and shorts, and I inwardly cursed because I'd totally forgotten mine at home. Jessica's wildly voluminous hair had been wrestled with to attempt to tame it into a high ponytail that sat like a puffy pouf of cotton on the crown of her head. She was also wearing pretty heavy make up despite it being P.E. Class, and her uniform was fitted to her short body. Angela, by pure contrast, was clear-skinned and her unbrushed hair was left down, gym clothes awkwardly too big for her lanky size.

I called out a greeting, startling the two of them into spinning around and finally seeing me.

"Are you okay, Leah? I heard you almost passed out in biology!" gasped Jessica, her eyes round and unbelievably wide.

"Leah, did you get home alright yesterday? I saw you leave biology but I didn't get a chance to talk to Mike after..." Angela asked with a resigned sort of anxiety, her hand clutching her other forearm.

I smiled halfheartedly. "Yep, I'm A-okay. Slept it off, I guess. Well, after vomiting my guts up all over the place."

Jessica wrinkled her nose in disgust. Angela nodded sympathetically.

"Hey Angela, did you happen to get my stuff after...?" I trailed off hopefully. The brown-haired girl looked at me apologetically.

"No, I'm sorry Leah. I think Jasper might've taken it, because it wasn't there once class let out and he was the only one close, but...I'm not sure." She worried her lip nervously between a pair of slightly jagged front teeth.

I flashed her another smile but I could tell she wasn't completely reassured. "No, that's fine. Thanks, anyway. I guess I'll just get it from him sometime between classes...but how I'm gonna go through the rest of my classes until then, I don't know."

Jessica waved a hand dismissively. "We both have AP History after this, right? You can just share with me, no big deal."

I nodded gratefully. "Thanks, Jessica."

I made to go take a seat on the bleachers, but Jessica held me back by grabbing my arm suddenly.

"Hold on a sec, Lee. What happened with Jasper yesterday?" Her light brown eyes were narrowed suspiciously, and I swear I almost cracked up at her antics that were more appropriate for a wildly over-the-top sitcom than real life.

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because he's hot and you sat next to him! That's why!"

"We had sex and he told me he loves me," I deadpanned. She pouted, while Angela looked completely surprised, probably taking me at face value. I giggled a little at my own joke. Jessica remained unimpressed.

"Really, Leah. Spill!"

I scoffed. "Nothing happened. Was something supposed to happen? I sat next to him. We talked about Texas. Small talk. That's it."

"Texas?" asked Angela.

"He's from Texas, supposedly," supplied Jessica offhandedly. She still didn't look completely satisfied with her information-pumping.

I shrugged. "Just 'cause you sit by a hot guy won't get you a free pass to hop into bed with him," I said lightly. Jessica squinted at me one last time before giving up and taking a seat on the bleachers with Angela and I. Not too long after and the coach walked out, generally rehashing the outline of every other class when it came to the first day of school since this was our first class of the year. Then after the long and boring speech on rules, the class was allowed to play basketball or volleyball amongst themselves.

I ended up joining Angela and Jessica in volleyball without my uniform; we didn't play very seriously anyway. Jessica kept trying to pull some kind of confession out of me regarding Jasper, but I kept shrugging her off. I refused to admit to my attraction to his good looks and easy charm—even if it was just an attraction and nothing else.

I kept missing Jasper, both in class and in the hallways. It turned out that the only class we really shared was biology, so I wouldn't get to see him until lunch or last period, which was biology again. I had to bum off supplies from Jessica, then Mike, and then a stand-offish girl whom I recognized at Jessica's lunch table named Lauren. After gym was AP History, then Calculus and AP English. The boredom had me in a daze before lunch rolled around and I got in line to order.

I was only vaguely aware of the disturbance behind me until I heard some yelling in an obnoxious female voice, one that I didn't recognize but was followed quickly by a voice I did. Jasper's low tone sounded annoyed, almost snappish. I didn't catch his words, but his drawl seemed more pronounced than ever as he snapped at the girl. I finally turned around, eyebrows raised.

"Gawd Jaspie, you can be _so _stubborn at times! It's not like I'm going outta my way to-to," the girl stumbled a bit before she spoke again. "_whatchamacallit _us! Jeez, loosen up a bit!"

I recognized her immediately as one of the Cullens. With her jet-black, spiky pixie cut, small, upturned nose, and large eyes that were twinkling with both mischief and annoyance, she had a look that was hard to forget. Her tiny stature apparently matched her high-pitched, almost childish voice and the immature way she seemed to be heckling the much taller, much older-looking Jasper.

His face was tilted down just to see her properly and my God, just how short was she? I glanced down to her feet. _And_ she was wearing gigantic platform boots! I eyed the rest of her outfit, which was bordering on the ridiculously impractical. Her clothes, all high-fashion, were barely hanging onto her small figure.

A red halter top tied with thin straps at the neck, leaving her back almost completely bare. She paired this with a tiny chiffon skirt in a mustard yellow color in a weird but cute shape that bubbled out with ruffles of varying thickness. Her platform shoes were a neutral nude color, and I had to say that they matched very nicely with the rest of her outfit, even if they caused her to stand out like the only technicolor thing in a black-and-white film. I supposed that this was intentional.

I hung back a little in the line just to listen to this odd girl. If I was completely honest with myself (which of course I wasn't), I was also just a _little _bit curious about Jasper's reactions. As I better surveyed the scene, I admitted grudgingly that he looked good too, again decked out in the same high-quality threads as his "sister." So their family was loaded?

"Alice," he spoke warningly, in a low voice that nonetheless carried. The little girl cringed like he'd just yelled at her, a guilty look at once crossing her face before it was wiped clean as she smirked up at him. Putting a hand on her hip cockily, she tilted her head as if in a challenge.

"You know what I think? I think poow wittle Jaspie is afwaid," her voice slipped into an obnoxious mimicry of baby-talk. I giggled a bit at the look of utter murder that flitted across Jasper's features. Alice cackled too at her damage, obviously unable to take a pissed-off Jasper seriously. And then her eyes met mine knowingly, a conspiratorial quirk to her small lips as my gaze lingered on them for just a moment too long.

I ducked my head with a blush of embarrassment, but she somehow seemed to be boasting further to Jasper at my actions, her face alight with her triumph as his darkened progressively until he finally scowled in resignation. Alice clapped her hands together and then wrapped one tiny hand on his forearm, pulling him along with her with ease...towards me.

I frantically glanced around for others they might be approaching but nope, it was me. She was probably going to chew me out for eavesdropping or something. If it came to that, I'd just have to speak the truth and tell her that it was _her fault _she was screeching so loudly, making a big fuss...

I busied myself with the hemline of my black shirt as I scooted up with the end of the line, pretending to be wholly disinterested in their proceedings and hoping that they'd just pass by me or something. I didn't look up until a moment later, and then the girl was standing expectantly right there in front of me. Actually, she was standing right there in front of me but _entirely_ _too_ _closely. _Literally inches away from my face. And hers was contorted into some parody of examination, her large eyes squinting to peer into my own.

I flinched away to hit the wall of the cafeteria kitchen. I imagine that in my panic my uncoordinated jumps looked more like an elephant's attempt to run away from a rat. Alice laughed at me, and I looked at Jasper to see his mouth angle up into a smile, though his mood was still sour. I glared suspiciously at the two of them.

I couldn't help it. Her eyes were the same intense, artificial shade of violet, casting off the same luminosity that had unsettled me so much with Jasper. It was like there were twin low-light light bulbs behind those eyes...

"Aw, I don't bite!" Alice chirped, hands on her hips and her face peering up at me once again while I clung to the wall like a cat to a tree.

"Y-yeah, well... I'm allergic to the color mustard," I babbled stupidly, feeling another hot blush on my face and once again thanking God for my dark complexion. Ha! Just try to get me flustered now! I should seriously join politics; no matter what stupid things I said I could maintain a reasonable facade of cool...when I wasn't jumping around like those Mexican jumping beans.

Alice tittered once again and this time Jasper actually chuckled. My eyes narrowed at him. And then an idea for some spite-driven, short-term, absolutely useless revenge!

"Wait, I actually have something to ask you, _Jaspie." _It took a considerably amount of willpower not to snicker as I reveled in watching his smile fall flatly. It was like a work of art.

_And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, was the work of master artist Leah Clearwater..._I thought to myself grimly. And then I giggled. But just a little. Jasper's eyebrows pulled into a more severe scowl. It looked more like a pout.

"Yes?" He had the grace to answer anyway.

"Uh, well, about yesterday; um, in the biology lab...?" Damn it, why was I stuttering all of a sudden?

At the mere mention of the sickness I felt yesterday, I felt another tug in my stomach. Jasper looked similarly uncomfortable, though I couldn't fathom why.

"Yes?"

I sighed. "Did you put my stuff away? 'Cause I talked to Angela and Mike, and they said—"

"Yes, I put it in your locker. It didn't have a lock on it," the blonde man interrupted smoothly. I felt a bit confused; how did he know my locker number in the first place? But then I just brushed it off. He must have asked the front desk or something. Maybe even Mike. It wasn't exactly a well-guarded secret.

"Oh, okay. Um, thanks." I clasped my hands in front of me awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it," Jasper drawled.

I bit my lip. That tingling sensation in my stomach was persisting. My eyes felt a bit unfocused...

Something really white was shoved in my face.

"Helloooo~! Eaaarrrthhh toooooo pppeeeerrrssssonnnnn..." Alice waved her dainty little hand in front of me in circles, hissing like a four-year old with a lisp pretending to be a snake. I snapped out of whatever daze I'd just sunken in, feeling a bit sheepish.

"Oh, sorry. And my name's Leah," I smiled a little forcefully at Alice, whose face suddenly seemed consumed by an unnaturally huge, cocky grin.

"I'm Alice Cullen, the greatest and cutest of the Cullen family. Of course," she proclaimed loudly, tacking on the last bit as a natural afterthought. I saw Jasper mimic her high-pitched voice with a small smirk, unseen by the smallest Cullen.

She stuck out a thumb towards her brother with an eye-roll. "And this is Jaspie. Well, his real name's Jasper, but this is his _proper _introduction, something I doubt he gave you, well, _ever." _

Jasper groaned.

"It all started when Jasper was finally potty trained at ele—"

"Alice, that's _enough_,"the tall man said with a hint of implication in his voice. Implying what, I had no idea. But I guessed it must have had to do with what they were arguing over earlier, because the guilty look once again flashed over Alice's face and suddenly, she was waving good bye and taking off with Jasper in tow, leaving me to stare after them, feeling overwhelmed.

When I finally looked ahead, the line before me had disappeared. I ordered a taco and sat down next to Jessica, but was quickly assaulted by a barrage of her questions. She'd seen me with Jasper and Alice and demanded to know when I would start dating him. I had to explain rather wearily that for the last time, no we were not, nor planned to, date any time soon. I only got three bites out of my taco by the time the bell rang and lunch was over, but that was okay because that crawling feeling in the pit of my gut made me lose what appetite I'd had anyway.

I chucked my taco and ambled over to my locker before heading down to biology with Angela, wondering why I hadn't bothered checking it in the first place when I found my purple messenger-style backpack lying there safe and sound.

. . .

I scanned the room in biology for any other extra seats, finding none except for the one beside Jasper, again. I wondered whether this was to be my seat for the rest of the year along with my lab partner for the rest of the year, but decided that I didn't really care. If anything problematic happened with Jasper (not like they would, or anything) I could always just request to have lab partners changed. Easy-squeezy.

So why was I feeling so apprehensive to be sitting next to him for the second time in a row?

I dropped my stuff carelessly on the black-topped lab station and slid onto a bar stool, the cold metal of the thing shocking the skin of my thighs as my shorts rode up. I winced. Jasper looked over at me in question before smiling politely. I tried to grin winningly through my grimace, but somehow that didn't work (I wonder why?). He glanced towards the front of the classroom for a mere moment, his eyes seemingly scanning over the teacher and students before us, all of whose backs were turned. Then he turned his gleaming violet eyes to me.

The strangest feeling swept over me. I felt like a cool wave of some completely permeable liquid had passed over me, sinking through my very pores and lightening the tension until it was completely absolved. It was as if someone had absorbed at all of the uneasiness in my body with a soft, wet sponge. I breathed and with the air that left me I grew lighter. I felt myself smile goofily as my troubles just...evaporated. The bubbling nausea in my stomach, the niggling worry over my Mom...

Jasper looked at me strangely before averting his eyes. That feeling of pleasantness that spangled throughout my body lessened somewhat. I banished my smile as Mr. Banner began the lesson and tried to pay attention.

We were learning about cell theory. I didn't care. I was floating away on cloud nine, everything around me just a minor distraction, a small nuisance. I wrote down some notes that probably didn't make sense and as class passed I came closer to a giggle fit. I was _bored_. Nothing interesting in here. The man sitting next to me was the prettiest thing in the room.

The bell rang and it took me a few moments to remember to gather my stuff. The rest of the people had been steadily streaming out of the door...and suddenly my mind was grounded again. Like a bucket of ice water had

been dumped on me, everything was abruptly brought to its regular crystal-clarity. I blinked, confused.

Had I just been high?

I looked around. There were a few stragglers left, Mike, a few other kids, and Angela. I noticed her standing by the door and she caught my eye a bit nervously. Then I realized that she must have been waiting for me. I slid off the bar stool a little too unsteadily, my balance thrown out of whack with my reality perception, apparently. I almost stumbled backward and made a man windmill motion with my hands to catch myself, but it was too late; I was going to fall.

And then I was stopped. There was a moment of complete surprise where my arm was suddenly in the firm grip of what felt like an ice cube. I gasped but was instantly righted despite my body's averse reaction to the cold.

I glanced down at my arm and followed the hand there to its owner. Jasper looked down at me with those hypnotizing eyes of his, his expression unreadable. For a few agonizing seconds, it seemed like I could never be able to tear my gaze from his, trapped forever within those untraveled dark depths. My stomach jumped. My heart was pumping double-time.

His expression changed. Before he was almost wary, but now he was staring at me with intensity, both an undying curiosity and a burn that seemed like frustration. He looked like he'd been both avoiding and anticipating this moment—this touch that both mystified and alarmed him.

My mouth was unbelievably dry. As his hair refused to stay put behind his ears and hung before one of his eyes, I was struck with the compulsion to both brush it away and tear it out of his head.

What broke the spell was Angela's timid calling of my name. Concern colored her voice, and I blinked several times before turning to her. Jasper dropped my arm as abruptly as if it had spontaneously combusted. She gaped at me with furrowed eyebrows and I found that I couldn't meet her gaze. The churning in my stomach was back full-force.

I muttered a quick apology to Jasper while he nodded mildly, pretending as if nothing had happened even when he couldn't help the way he looked visibly shaken. I followed Angela outside of the classroom, and she had the presence not to question me about whatever had just occurred. I must have looked just as perturbed as I felt. She only asked me if I was alright, and though I constantly affirmed her that I was fine, I myself wasn't so sure.

I was even more confused than I was before. And though I wasn't physically sick, I knew that I wasn't in the right state of mind, because there was something in my body that screamed with the ferocity of a thousand alarms that caused me to come to one conclusion.

_There was something wrong with the Cullens._


	4. A Date

**A.N.: **Here it is guys, the latest chapter. I'm sorry for the lateness, but I have an excuse (I swear!). So, I'm done with my fun month of job experience just in time to go to Canada (!) for two weeks. I had this sitting on my drive, half-written for nearly a week before I left, but then I came back and a truck load of new ideas attacked me like a band of feral moose. As a consequence, I had to practically throw out whatever I had for this chapter and the next and completely re-write them. I think that it's for the better, though-this new slew of ideas has the wheels going in this story, pretty much so that it'll be entirely unrecognizable from the retelling of Twilight that it seems to be now. I hope that you guys will enjoy reading it as much as I will writing it. And that you don't mind too terribly for the lateness.

Stick around and leave your thoughts in the review box!

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't have any ownership of the Twilight series, nor any of its plot lines or characters. Those belong to Stephenie Meyer.

* * *

**3. A Date**

The weather, though almost constantly under the cover of clouds, was remarkably cool. The air was a bit humid, but it carried the pleasant breeze effortlessly. Periodically, there would be a break in the sea of water vapor overhead, spilling forth little ribbons of golden light from a suppressed sun. It was with the cool weather in the forefront of my mind that I decided to go jogging along one of the more secluded hiking trails I'd discovered earlier during my little tour of the town.

My phone rang obnoxiously about fifteen minutes into my jog. I cursed and nearly tripped over a wayward branch. Rubbing my leg where I'd scraped it in my clumsy attempt to catch myself, I dug the thing out of the pocket of my shorts. I wondered a little blithely who could possibly have been calling me when I'd already alerted Mom of my whereabouts. She didn't say much, which led me to assume that she was completely fine with it, and she wouldn't call me when she knew I was jogging. I answered in a clipped voice.

"Leah!" Jessica's high voice, made higher by the distortion of the phone, chirped out at me. I quickly adjusted the volume meter on my cell phone, but that didn't cease the ringing in my ears.

"Jessica..." I replied wearily. But I just couldn't find the heart to bitch at her when she hadn't really done anything wrong. Jessica was just being her usual over-excited self. I was the one having a bad day. I gritted my teeth.

"So! Angela told me what happened today," she probed, her tone entirely too cheerful. I began walking but wiped a hand down myself in my exasperation. I waited for her to continue as I stayed silent. Predictably, she did.

"Is there something going on between you and Jasper?" She sounded less accusatory and more concerned. For the first time since I met her, Jessica seemed...hesitant about the subject. I frowned. It took me a while to puzzle through my answer. I was torn between my simultaneous desires to both tell her everything weird that I'd been feeling and expose myself as a freak, or ride out this curiosity silently, maybe do a little sleuthing on my own. So I settled for something in the middle.

I shrugged, unseen to the gossipy brunette on the other line. Nothing if some unspoken animosity; he seemed reluctant to touch me or look at me for extended periods. I answered vaguely: "I don't know."

There was another unnatural pause in her usual nonstop conversation. If I couldn't sense her anxiety, I'd have assumed that she was simply more reserved on the phone. I felt the stifling urge to fill the silence.

"Well, he is kinda cute and all. Actually, more like hot. I mean, his face is just so...and his voice... I dunno, it reminds me of, like, buttered popcorn. His sister's pretty cute, too—not Rosalie, God, no, she's _gorgeous, _but Alice. You know, the small, tiny one that looks like Tinkerbell? And I don't mean that in like a lesbian way, I mean I was just talking about Jasper's hotness a few seconds ago!" I laughed nervously and then cringed.

Oh God, kill me now. I was launching into full-on babble mode. I choked down the rest of my rant before I could start blathering on about how green the plants were here, literally coughing with effort. Jessica, meanwhile, had occupied herself with a giggle fit at my expense, all previous tension apparently dissolved.

"Wow, so you're actually like this! No wonder you don't talk so much. And here I thought you were so cool," she teased. I smiled a little painfully, at least grateful that we'd moved off of the subject of the Cullens and their weirdness. Even the subject of them had, I noticed, drawn goosebumps on my arms.

"Nice to know that you're feeling better," Jessica resumed. "I was just calling to check in with you, you know, because Angela said that you didn't look too hot and she thought that it was probably what had you sick the day before, too." She was digging again.

"Food poisoning, I think. I feel better. In fact, I'm taking a walk. Thanks for asking, though."

"Aw, that's great because we—Lauren, Angela, and I—were just wondering whether you'd like to come with us to go shopping on Saturday. Angela and Lauren need to buy some bathing suits."

My eyebrows raised, and this time I didn't hesitate speaking exactly what was on my mind. "Swimming? Isn't it getting kinda cold nowadays?"

She laughed off my concerns. "Nah, it's still okay to go down to the beach. A bit cold, but nothing serious. Oh! You weren't there, were you? After you left yesterday, we all decided to go to the beach on Sunday. So Angela mentioned that she needed a swimsuit, and me and Lauren thought we'd help her out, y'know, maybe catch a movie and some dinner too."

I nodded into the phone, thinking that I'd probably go; it wasn't like I had any plans this weekend, not with my mom's sour mood. I had decided that it was best to avoid her when she was like this, for as long as possible. Going to the beach and otherwise keeping myself occupied just happened to fit in with those plans. And I might even have fun, too, however guiltily I thought about it.

"Okay, sure. Where are we going?" I peered up at the rapidly darkening sky overhead through the gaps in the trees. It looked like it was going to rain. I unconsciously sped up.

"Well, on Saturday we're gonna go shopping in Port Angeles. We're all piling up in my car, if you don't know the way. And Sunday, Mike and Tyler are driving both of their cars down in teams."

"Wow," I said, thinking of how many people must have been tagging along to the beach if Tyler's massive van was required.

"Hmm?"

"That many, huh?"

"Oh, well, no. There's still room for more, if you'd like to invite someone," Jessica said in a tone that was clearly puzzled; she probably didn't think I knew anyone apart from our little group and she was right, of course.

"Yeah, like who? I don't know anyone," I laughed. She made a drawn-out thinking hum.

"Jasper?" she asked slyly, a giggle at the edges of her voice. I rolled my eyes. In that small space of time when I wasn't keeping my eyes on the ground, my shin accidentally bumped into a boulder.

Cursing colorfully, I perched the battered appendage on the rock and rubbed the now-rapidly bruising area. I gingerly tested my weight on my leg, feeling little bursts of pain shoot up my bone. I clenched my teeth.

"Leah?" called out Jessica, clearly wondering just what had happened. I shook my head.

"Nothing, Jess. Just tripped while rolling my eyes at you," I deadpanned.

"You're really clumsy," she said, stating the obvious. I laughed shortly into the phone, the truth of it staring me in the face in the form of a purple splotch on my skin.

"Looks like I'm cutting this walk short," I muttered.

"Well, I wouldn't want to keep you. Might trip off a cliff."

"Ha, ha. See ya, Jess."

"Yep. I'll come by Saturday to pick you up. Ten sound good?"

"Sure," I said. The phone disconnected with my assent. I began to hustle back to my car, my step a little less heavy now that I had something to look forward to. The rain began to fall halfway there, but I found myself uncaring about the fact. The cool water should have exacerbated the slight chill in the air, and yet my skin was almost burning. I guess I must have been more out of shape than I'd thought.

. . .

The rest of the week passed surprisingly quickly. The school days flew by without incident, mostly because any sickness I had been experiencing had abruptly evaporated. The Cullens still occupied their usual dingy corner of the cafeteria and I still felt myself simultaneously drawn to and repelled by their ghostly-beautiful appearances. I still felt that compulsion to both avoid them until the end of days and unearth the root of these mysterious impulses. The secret behind the death-pallor, the perfect features that were so alike and so different, the unique and chilling eyes that seemed to glow.

On Friday, Jasper wasn't in Biology. During lunch, I couldn't spot any of them. Their corner table usually drew my peripheral gaze with the starkness of their chalky skin; on Friday it only caught my attention because it was the only table in the crowded lunchroom that remained empty. Even when they were absent, they left a forbidding aura that was not unnoticed by the rest of the population, whether subconsciously or not. People instinctively stayed away from the Cullens and looked down on them with the strange mixture of awe and apprehension.

They were Untouchable, something far more than just the average bitchy clique. Forks didn't have cliques. You were either normal, weird, or Cullen. And if you were a Cullen, you were respected and feared. There was no jealousy or petty envy. People understood the line that divided them from us. Nobody could possibly hope to ascend to their plane above the social norm. It wasn't something you could achieve. It just was. They just were. And when they were gone without so much as a fake sick-note written up by their doctor daddy, everyone accepted it with a sense of guilty relief on their faces.

I asked Jessica why nobody seemed concerned for the adoptive siblings, my own subtle way of digging, and she admitted that this was apparently a normal occurrence. She said something about camping trips, and when I asked her about the bad storms that I assumed made up the bulk of summer weather, she simply shrugged and said offhandedly that she was under the impression that the weather wasn't a problem for them. My eyebrows shot up at this, but I kept my suspicions to myself.

Camping? Yeah, right. I got the feeling that nobody really accepted this flimsy excuse, either. Not with the raging thunderstorm pounding against the roof of the school like a constant barrage of heavy fists. In fact, with the weather looking like it did, I was becoming increasingly worried about the fate of the planned beach trip. Jessica laughed off my concerns, asking instead whether I would need to buy a swimsuit as well. She predicted that we'd probably spend the entire day at Port Angeles. I began to regret my decision—wasting an entire day shopping for bathing suits?-but decided that it would probably be better than hanging around the house and pretending I didn't live in it.

So first thing Sunday morning I pulled on some denim shorts and shimmied into a red tank-top and crème-colored bolero. I spent nearly an hour dolling myself up for the girls' day out, trying to put off going downstairs for as long as possible. I didn't even want to sit myself down at the table I knew Mom was going to be occupying for breakfast, feeling her sad, anxious expression trained on me as I wolfed down cereal. She was already worrying over my feelings toward staying with her, and her inferiority complex in regards to parenting was already rearing its ugly head.

I felt like such an ass dodging her like this, but the truth was that I had no clue how to handle her. The amount of time I spent with my Mom probably totaled no more than a year combined. I didn't know her apart from that grinning mask she kept up around me, one that had instantly crumbled after Billy's visit, maybe forever. I knew that I'd have to face her sooner or later, but with my gut twisting at the _thought_ of such a confrontation, I decided I'd rather wait, even if the turnout proved to be catastrophic as a result.

Because of the forty-five minutes spent in dread, obsessive-compulsively doing my hair and make-up to get my mind off of Mom, I ended up looking pretty awesome. Better than usual, anyway.

My phone vibrated alarmingly as I was finishing with my hair, causing the straightener in my hand to jump along with me and burn the edge of my ear. A flash of white-hot pain seared my sensitive skin before I could register it, and I cursed obnoxiously in reflex, dropping the damn iron in the sink. I quickly unplugged it with one hand, the other clamping down on my injured ear. I bit my lip hard and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" My voice was strained.

"Leah!" Jessica chirped on the other end of the line. "We're outside!"

"Yeah, I'll be right there." I hung up, gathered my phone and purse, and stomped down the stairs in my heeled boots. I called a quick farewell to my Mom as I made for the door, but whether she was there or not I received no reply.

I shut my front door to see Jessica's black SUV stalled in the gravel driveway and plastered on a smile as I waved to her. Lauren was seated in the front, her expression bored, and Angela must have been tucked in the back. I took my seat next to Angela and Jessica began the usual greetings—how I was, where I bought the clothes I was wearing, how I felt about whatever new gossip she happened to ladle out. Lauren only began to really talk when the gossip started—and by that time, we were halfway there. I found my spirits being lifted throughout the trip, inane girl talk getting my mind off of the heavier stuff that had clouded it earlier.

In what felt like no time, we'd arrived outside of the sprawling Port Angeles. Jessica had resolved to park the car a ways away from the shopping centers we'd planned to hit in her new found zeal for "losing weight."

"Ugh, Jess, but I'm wearing flip-flops!" Lauren grumbled as we jumped out of the car. Jessica rolled her eyes.

"What, you don't think you could do to lose a few?"

Lauren made an indignant face. Angela and I laughed. Lauren was easily anorexic, the skinniest of the four of us. Apparently, she didn't think so.

The sky was streaked with clouds, few rays of sun penetrating through the thick layer. The weather made the time hard to judge and promised rain further into the night. That didn't put a damper on my spirits, however; I was practically one step away from singing. I wondered why I'd been so apprehensive about this in the first place...

The weather was mild, but when Jessica pushed open the double doors there was the expected blast of air-conditioning, cold enough to draw goosebumps. I pondered on the irony of this artificial freezer that sold swimsuits, no less, and completely missed Jessica's approach until she thrust whatever she was holding in her hand against me.

"Wha—?" I sputtered stupidly. Her blue eyes cast imperiously over the article of clothing before she shucked it away on the nearest rack. I glanced at her wordlessly for explanation, but she'd already headed back into the foray along with Lauren, who had somehow warped over to the end of the store and was carrying out her own prowl in concentrated silence. Even Angela, who hadn't strayed far from the entrance of the store, was chewing her lip over a rack. I frowned at myself, before looking over to what Jessica had modeled on me so unsuccessfully.

It couldn't even be called a swimsuit, it was so skimpy. It was a halter top one-piece in a garish metallic purple shade, the apparent modesty of a one-piece completely destroyed with the insane amounts of cut-out in the fabric. Barely more than an inch kept the wearer's nipples out of sight, something that would immediately be discounted with a swift dive or actual _swimming_. I hesitated before even touching the price tag, quickly making sure nobody was watching before I turned the thing over. God forbid Jessica or Lauren catch me with this—they'd probably make me buy it and wear it next Saturday.

I shuddered at the barrage of potential disaster that entered my mind and swiftly glanced at the tag before dropping the tacky thing like it burned. Sixty dollars? For less than a yard of fabric? My entire outfit cost less than that!

I shook my head and walked over to Angela, who immediately assaulted me with her insecurities. She held a subdued pink one-piece, completely devoid of embellishment save for its slightly ruffled collar.

"Um, what do you think about this one?"

I eyed it critically. It meshed well with her quiet persona, that was for sure.

"I dunno. It's not really eye-catching, is it?" She bit her lip in response, light brown hair falling into her eyes.

"It's real classy though," I amended quickly. Angela smiled sheepishly, tucking the swimsuit under her arm.

"So, uh, are you planning on buying anything?" I thought about the ridiculously expensive purple swimsuit and the forty dollars burning a hole in my small purse. A hefty allowance from a rich father, one that I wouldn't be getting anymore on my Mom's salary. Another reason for me to find a job.

I frowned. I didn't really _need _a swimsuit. How often was I going to be swimming up here, anyway? Once a year? Better to save up for something grand, something that I really needed...like a TV. The only place to hook up a video game system existed in the communal living room TV, and with the amount of F-bombing, prostitute-murdering games I currently owned and played, I didn't think that the sounds and images of gore splattering all over the place would be particularly welcome.

With that thought in mind, I shook my head. "Eh, I don't plan on swimming. Period," I lied.

Angela nodded as though she'd been reprimanded for asking a stupid question. I looked over at the other two, who were scavenging diligently, then back to the girl before me who was, for all intents and purposes, completely finished.

"So you're done and I'm done," I began. Angela beat me to the punch.

"I'll pay. And then we can go to the book store?"

"Sure! Great, I'll just go and tell Jessica," I smiled and sauntered over to the bushy-haired girl while Angela headed over to the cashier.

"Jessica, we're gonna go to the book store. I guess we'll meet up?"

She waved me off. "Yeah, yeah, I'll call you guys."

Her eyes were examining a white version of the purple _thing _that she'd had earlier. I grimaced and hoped vainly that she wasn't planning on wearing that to the beach tomorrow, but in the end I was thoroughly ignored by the girl, who made swimsuit-shopping look like it required mental facilities on par with a college-level physics exam. I shook my head with a small smirk and met Angela by the double-doors, instantly warmed once we stepped out of the unnaturally quiet and freezing building and back into the streets.

I stretched and allowed Angela to lead the way. As per usual, she was quiet, but I didn't really mind. My little girls' night out high was undiminished. I was just glad I wouldn't have to spend the next few hours in that store.

The bookstore was more crowded than I'd thought, but we managed to snag some seats. I read some crappy romance novel for a while, skimming over sex scene after sex scene a little boredly until my phone finally vibrated nearly an hour later. Jessica was waiting outside—she wanted to know if we were up for a movie. I agreed though I didn't really feel like sitting down for another two hours. As for lunch, the movie theater had a wide range of healthy, wholesome foods ranging from popcorn to chilli to soda to popcorn again.

We caught the one o'clock show for some romantic flick. The guy was hot, the girl was annoying, the plot was predictable: standard fare for a romantic movie. I found myself enjoying it despite that. I wasn't bawling at the end like Jessica or crying softly like Lauren or Angela, but I felt a little twinge of emotion when their love was finally declared, and found myself sympathizing with Jessica afterward when she bemoaned the lack of a love life so simple and obvious as the ones in the movies.

By this time, it was early afternoon, but the layer of cloud descending over the sun had increased to a swollen blackness that coated the horizon like soot on the edges of a fireplace.

"Bleagh," Lauren remarked upon the weather, green eyes narrowed at the sky. "We should get outta here before it really starts to come down."

Angela glanced at Jessica, who was fumbling with her purse. "Do you think we should go, Jessica?"

The short girl cast one look at the clouds, made a face, and nodded. "Yeah, that doesn't look so good. Lee?"

"Huh?"

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, sure—wait a minute, shit, no, hold on." I quickly patted myself down for my cell phone—I was going to call Mom and let her know that we were coming home—but found that I didn't have it on me.

"You okay?" Lauren asked dryly, eyebrows raised.

I bit my lip. "Uh, yeah, except I think I forgot my cell phone. Somewhere." I briefly thought about where I'd left it last, oh, well, that was in the book store...

"I left it in the book store," I muttered, silently cursing myself for being such a forgetful idiot.

"We'll go with you," Angela said simply. Lauren looked a little sullen about the ordeal but agreed to go anyway. Jessica was visibly impatient, but I think that was because of the rain.

I marched over to the store, which seemed even more crowded since we'd left. I pushed my way past the small throng of people towards the area that we'd occupied, which was thankfully secluded and therefore empty. I found my cell phone tucked under the chair where it must have dropped when I stood up. I was on my hands and knees when I heard Jessica's first giggles, followed by a few conspiratorial whispers shared with who I assumed to be Lauren.

I didn't expect them to help me find my phone, but I also wasn't asking for them to go and make fun of me for it, either! I was fully aware of how silly I looked, groping around under the heavy chair to reach for my phone. Which was why, when I identified the _true _reason for their giggling, I felt the blood rush to my face.

Realization came with the clearing of an awfully familiar, male voice. A voice that I immediately recognized when it sounded, amusement clear in his voice.

"Can I help you with that, ma'am?"

My back went ramrod straight, and in my moment of physical paralysis, I managed to jerk my head up and hit it rather painfully on the armrest of the damn chair.

The giggles dissolved into laughter. I groaned and sat up on my knees, rubbing my sore head as I stared up ruefully into Jasper's handsome face. His expression was too innocent to presume that he didn't share the same kind of amusement that had my friends in hysterics.

I smiled sweetly at him. "You have long arms. Can _you_ get my phone for me?"

He assumed a shocked expression. "What? No 'hi's or 'hello's or even a 'thank you very much, Mr. Jasper Hale'?"

My smile didn't falter. "I thought we could skip that since you got a free pass to stare at my ass."

"I didn't look," he said defensively, even as he began to sink down towards the end of the chair that my phone was closest to. I was right; his arm reached easily. He handed me my phone with a smile...I think, the largest smile I'd ever seen on that face.

I blinked, suddenly confused, but took the phone anyway. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." His smile grew. There was a small pause, and he cleared his throat again, this time not for effect. Jasper's gaze dropped from mine, seemingly searching the shelves behind me, and I got the distinct impression that he was anxious about something. I found myself waiting for him to say what he was obviously struggling with.

"So, I was wondering, now that you owe me and all..."

I did a double-take, my eyes slightly wide. Was he about to...? I quickly glanced at the girls behind me before I could stop myself. Jessica looked ecstatic, Angela confused (yeah, me too), and Lauren stubbornly indifferent.

"Do you wanna catch some dinner?"

I blinked again, several times. Jasper was wearing a slight grin that looked a little on edge while I stared at him stupidly. I almost couldn't believe it. This was so...unexpected and just...weird! His character was completely different from the friendly but aloof persona he maintained all other times in school. For a moment, I couldn't say anything.

And then: "Me?" My finger was pointed demonstratively at my chest.

He smiled bemusedly, tension having deflated from his shoulders somewhat. "Is there anyone else in there I should be aware of?"

I laughed at myself, feeling ridiculous once more. My blush returned full-force, and he looked at my cheeks curiously at the response. I could honestly count on one hand the number of times anyone noticed my blush; it was usually undetectable due to the darkness of my skin. A simple, subtle shift in color was rarely picked up on. But the gleam in his eyes and the quirk of his lips—a smile turned into a smirk—told me that he was certainly paying attention to my face, unlike some boys.

"You're blushing," he pointed out helpfully. I clamped a hand to my face in a vain attempt to hide it. The giggles behind me resumed.

"That's because you just asked me out," I explained lowly.

"Go for it, Lee!" Jessica none-too-discreetly stage whispered. I cringed, for once finding her behavior a little on the obnoxious side. Lauren muttered something about being hungry anyway.

"Um, okay. Sure," I said, suddenly unable to look Jasper straight in the eye.

Even if Jessica wasn't there urging me on, though, I knew I would have agreed. It was certainly strange, seemingly completely at odds with his character thus far, but that's what it would have taken if I wanted to ever solve this unsettling feeling that entered the pit of my stomach when I saw, heard, smelled this man. Something that kept slipping under my finger whenever I tried to pinpoint it... but then my thoughts were scattered anyway when he gently helped me up and I was forced once again to look into his handsome face. Damn chivalry.

Well, I _thought_ that. An unbearably giddy feeling was zipping through my bones, though, as he led the way out of the book store and towards the restaurant he was apparently taking me out to. The suddenness of the situation was completely lost on me; now all I could think about was how he'd never really denied it when I accused him of asking me out. So I was going on a date with Jasper. And Jessica, Angela, and Lauren were tagging along. I was more than fine with that, following just behind Jasper and not really seeing anything that I was passing.

A flash of blonde drew my eyes to the left, and I nearly stopped, though I couldn't fathom what had compelled me to do so. Then, Jasper's hand gently alighted on the small of my back and the giddiness returned, settling in my stomach like a flock of feathery birds tickling my insides. I vaguely felt abashed for allowing something like this pretty boy to warp my feelings and body into a pile of utter goo so effortlessly, but it was a sentiment that, at the moment, was at the farthest corner of my mind.

It was an Italian restaurant called something in Italian. I wasn't really paying attention until we entered and waited to be seated, Jessica and company a little ways off to be seated separately. The air conditioning abruptly jerked me out of my school-girlish haze and I blinked, standing awkwardly with the realization of the tension between us. I found myself wondering again what his motivations were. He didn't seem the type to just up and ask a girl out, and I'd never suspected him being even remotely attracted to me. Above all else, he was indifferent. Charming and indifferent or anxious and indifferent, as he had been that last time we had biology—that accidental brush of his freezing skin that had me hearing alarm bells.

I thought back to the chirpy little girl who had introduced herself to me as his sister, seemingly against his will. Maybe she'd put him up to this?

A pretty girl wearing a waitress' apron and an Oxford quickly appeared to seat us, faltered slightly at Jasper's charming smile, but then bravely pushed on, depositing us in a somewhat private, plush-seat adorned booth where we took our seats across from each other. There was a window by the seat, but the first thing Jasper did upon sitting down was to draw the blinds. I sighed, slightly disappointed. Now I'd have to actually look at him and risk making an idiot out of myself.

I glanced at him surreptitiously, only to find his eyes trained intently on me. Feeling a thrill that was both threatening and exhilarating, I found myself blurting out exactly what had been on my mind this entire time.

"Sooo...dinner. That was unexpected." I mentally cringed, but forced the self-detrimental thoughts away. I'd started this conversation. There was no where to go but onwards, now.

The lighting in this restaurant was subdued, a faint golden glow emanating from the overhead drum-screened lights. The upholstery and furnishings were antique-looking and painted to look like a glazed cherry wood. The dim light gave the appearance of antiques in candle-light, and as it lit up his defined features, he looked far too...complacent in this atmosphere. Like he belonged with the antiques in a time far-gone. He certainly carried deathly pale off like it was in fashion, anyway.

Jasper regarded me with an unreadable expression, his gaze still inescapable.

"Well, to tell the truth..." he began, in a tone suitably ominous to match my anticipatory thoughts. He sounded like he was about to confess something...grave. I unconsciously leaned forward, my mind racing through several improbable ideas ranging from secret James-Bond-esque spy to ax-murderer. Anything and everything possibly accounting for the level of heavy intrigue that surrounded him, more than just any average attractive man. The something about him that both attracted and repelled me so forcefully, that made me catch that undefinable look in his eye that spiked the feelings of foreboding in me.

"I really did look." His head was slightly bowed, hair curtaining part of his face and reflecting the same color as the lights overhead: a dull gold.

I'm sure the disappointment was clear on my face, along with the confusion that sketched a frown. "What?"

He glanced away, seemingly abashed. "In the book store..."

My face was still arranged like a question mark. He huffed slightly at my slowness. I realized what he was saying, of course, but the lead-up...disappointing. I knew, though, that it probably wasn't going to be as easy as I always expected it to be. Maybe he was just buying lunch because he was hungry. Maybe it meant nothing. Either way, I resolved to spending all of this time extracting information from him...in an underhanded way, of course.

"How unfair!" I said. He looked a bit taken aback. "So I don't owe you—you owe me?"

It was his turn to look confused.

I continued: "Y'know, I agreed to going out with you because I thought you were _different_. I thought I owed you, and that I'd do a guy like you a favor." I shook my head, really laying it on thick—thick enough for anyone to tell I was joking, of course.

"'A guy like me...?'" Jasper repeated mock-incredulously, catching on. "Tell me, what exactly is a 'guy like me,' then. I'm curious." He folded his arms and leaned back expectantly, his toned forearms under three-quarter sleeves drawing my eyes before I replied flippantly.

"Well, a Nice Guy. That shy nerd in the back of the class room who's still chivalrous because he thinks that's what the ladies want. Never gets a date, and almost certainly never checks out a chick's ass without her permission."

He smirked. "I guess you have thoroughly misjudged me, then."

"Aha! You scoundrel! You knave! You utterly pompous cad! You deceived me!"

Jasper laughed at my ridiculousness. "Leah, why are you speaking like a nineteenth-century Englishman?"

"Why do you?" I returned, fully bemused once more. He blinked at me, waiting for me to explain myself.

"Ah, come on, man! Who says 'Englishman' anymore? They're the Brits!"

He shook his head with a smile, opening his mouth to say something before a pretty red-headed girl approached our table, decked out in the same waitress' attire as the girl who'd seated us. As she smiled brightly at us, I wondered idly whether the restaurant hired based on physicality or if we were just lucky enough to get two knockout girls to serve us in a row. She certainly was intimidating...maybe a size two at most with a tiny waist and possessing breasts definitely larger than my smaller Cs. I shrunk a little in my seat, Jasper's real purpose behind this dinner once again troubling me at the forefront of my mind.

He was undeniably attractive. He and any of his siblings could easily take their pick of girls. Maybe the idea of him asking me was too strange, too disconcerting—but maybe that was all it was. Perhaps he was some kind of social recluse with self-esteem problems. Or maybe he was just unlike any other teenage guy I'd met and was uninterested in the trifle things about a woman like her boobs and her ass.

Watching him flash the charm as he ordered immediately discounted the first idea. He was well aware of his attractiveness to others and used it to full effect even in everyday conversations. It was the reason I'd been so overwhelmed when he first introduced himself to me. And he very well admitted that he wasn't above eying my ass in the bookstore; even now, I could see that he was pretty well aware of the waitress' attractiveness as well. Though I had yet to see him actively checking out the bit of cleavage that peeked out of her button-down.

"And you, ma'am?" The redhead turned to me with a bright smile, clutching a notepad. I glanced at the menu for a few paltry seconds before rattling off the first thing I glanced at.

"Yeah, and could I get a coke with that as well?" I finished, biting my lip as I glanced over at Jasper. He was through paying the waitress attention, but I caught the gaze he had trained on me before it dropped into his earlier expression of a carefully placed smile.

It was anxiety. For a brief second, he looked worried. I felt a stone drop in my stomach, a kick of the same emotion without fathoming why. The red haired waitress spared a glance for Jasper as she left to relay our orders. I blinked hard at the table, my mind blank and my mouth curiously dry. Jasper tapped out some unrecognizable rhythm on the wooden surface.

"So..." I looked up at his voice. His face was tilted up at me inquisitively. "What were you four doing when I caught you? Besides bending over for a phone." He said the words "bending over" with an implication not lost on me, though in a way so innocuous it made me feel almost perverted when I blushed. And I had yet to hear a single dirty word come out of that mouth. The quirk of his lips told he'd picked up on my reaction once again, no matter how hard I attempted to smother it.

Why was he so frustratingly hard to read when I was as transparent as a book to him?

"Well, Jess, Lauren, and Ang all needed swimsuits. So we went shopping."

It was a standard activity, even a little boring. He seemed interested enough, but what swirled in my mind was _his _reasons for being in Port Angeles so late in the day, seemingly alone, apparently planning on staying for a while when we were just leaving.

"Shopping for beach items in September?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

I shrugged. _"_We're going to the beach tomorrow. Well, Jess, Ang, Lauren, and Mike and the guys. Of course, I'm not going near the water. Too cold for me."

Jasper looked thoughtful. "The beach by La Push?"

I nodded. "Something like that. That's nearby the reservation, right?" I didn't really know about the reservation or the beach, but with the commentary from Jessica and Lauren it was a pretty well-known area for bonfires and the like.

Thinking about Jessica and her commentary had me thinking about all of the constant hints she'd thrown my way about the open invitation status of the get-together. And then something occurred to me. Without fully thinking through the implications of my gamble, I took a risk and just flat-out went ahead.

Looking at Jasper from under my mascaraed eyelashes as (hopefully) coquettishly as I knew how, I asked, "Why, Jasper? Would you like to come along?"

This was a sure enough test as any to see if he was actually interested in me. With no connection to any of the other people tagging along for the trip, there would really be no reason for him to go unless he wanted to see me again. Again, I couldn't identify where my suspicions stemmed from or what the hell other reason there could be for his actions. I was probably just being either exceedingly paranoid or bored the hell out of my skull, but my heart rate's increased speed and my anticipation at his response coupled with this knowing feeling in my gut...

I wasn't just feeling this way because I was pretty much asking him out. I felt like I needed to figure him out, to catch him in some act that I didn't know. My insides screamed confusing directions to me. I had no idea what was going on, but I went with those feelings. And they lurched when he cast me another wry look; not entirely suspicious but hovering near it.

A little desperate, I resorted to really laying it on. "I might have to wear a swimsuit if you come along. You know. To get a little more debt in my favor."

Any hormonal boy with a crush would leap at the chance to see the chick they liked in a revealing swimsuit. Jasper should have been no different. His mouth stretched into a crooked smile. A good sign, I thought, squashing down the familiar feeling of butterflies.

"Leah Clearwater," he began slowly. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

I blushed and his smile widened. "No. More like inviting you to ogle me in a bikini."

"Ah," Jasper sighed melodramatically, the gleam in his eye immediately giving him away.

I raised an eyebrow. "Disappointed?"

He glanced a few tables away, where Jessica, Angela, and Lauren were seated, no doubt trying hard eavesdrop. "Yes, I'm sorry to say."

Jasper gave me a sidelong look. "I can't go."

"Oh." The giddiness I was feeling just seconds ago had flat lined. I struggled to keep my voice light despite all of the questions that clawed their way up my throat.

"Is Jasper Whitlock afraid of a little sun burn? Not that I blame you; your skin must fry like bacon in the sun." Oh god, was that offensive? I inwardly cringed. Sometimes things slipped out of my mouth _way _too easily.

Thankfully, he just gave a small smile. Letting his gaze travel to the covered window like he could, in fact, see behind it, he replied, "Something like that."

My head tilted to the side in question. Jasper cleared his throat. "Actually, I have some prior engagements. And, well, really I just don't want to be around the reservation. Call me a coward, but last time I was there I had a nasty run-in with a gang I'm hoping to avoid this time around." He flashed me an enigmatic smile just as the redheaded waitress came around with steaming plates of food.

My mouth salivated. I didn't realize how ravenous I was until now. And I was thankful that whatever I'd ordered turned out to be a plate of some dressed-up chicken.

I took a swig of the newly-delivered Coke and was about to dig in when the sound of a generic cell phone ring went off. Jasper looked apologetically at me, his hand pulling out a shiny black cell phone from his pocket.

"I'm going to take this call," he said politely. Mildly bemused, I shrugged. "Go ahead."

He stood up from the table and made his way outside to leave me to my food in peace. I was kind of glad he'd done so—at least he wasn't there to witness my horrible eating skills. I barely used my knife while wolfing the thing down. I didn't particularly care to take small, ladylike bites either. But damn it all, I was so hungry!

Within seconds, my food was wiped clean off my plate, my soda chugged down moments before, and I just caught Jessica's approach before she plopped herself down in front of me. I glanced over to Lauren and Angela to see that they weren't even bothering to _not_ look so scandalously interested in whatever was going on at this table.

Jessica propped her face in both of her hands and grinned at me. "Sooooo...?"

"_'Soooooo...'_ what?"

She giggled. "Jasper! Asking you for dinner! At such a nice restaurant! Jeez, Lee, come on!"

I rolled my eyes. "Come where?" She swatted me lightly on the arm.

"Oh, don't be like that, Lee. What'd he say?"

"Um, well, he admitted to checking me out."

Her already round eyes became positively saucer-like. "Oooohhhh. Really? So he likes you? I never would've guessed!"

"I mean, before it was like he barely passed you a glance, y'know? And to ask you so suddenly! Hah, it's kinda funny to think that all this time he's been checking you out."

I frowned. So my doubts weren't unfounded. Not even Jess could have seen that coming with the way he'd been acting previously.

She halted her tirade when she saw my face. "Hey, you okay, Lee?"

"Uhm, yeah. I think." Jessica looked at me expectantly with her big blue eyes. I took a deep breath.

"I asked him out." I felt my shoulders slump with the admission.

"And...he said no." A matching frown appeared on her face. "Oh, that sucks."

I was startled by how convincing this "disappointed" act was to Jessica. True, I felt a little stupid for being rejected, but it wasn't as though I really had a crush on Jasper. I was more worried about the significance of this—whether there were ulterior motives hanging around or whether I was just becoming more and more of a paranoid schizophrenic.

Jessica opened her mouth, about to say something else before she abruptly tapped my shoulder and whispered, "Here, he's back. Talk to you later." She winked at me reassuringly before she scampered off to rejoin the other two, no doubt spreading the good word of my failure.

Jasper placed his palms on the table, refusing to take a seat. He leaned just close enough for me to get a whiff of cologne, an unexpectedly spicy, sexy smell that once again reaffirmed his uncanny ability to seem far older than a high school boy. He utterly lacked any of the nervous or overly cocky tendencies of many of the guys my age...and even looked like he was in his early twenties.

I felt a small tremor race down my spine when he began speaking.

"Leah, I have to go. That was Alice on the phone, and they're wondering where I am. Sorry," he said lowly. I nodded.

"Yeah, that's completely fine but, um, what about your food?" No, it wasn't completely fine. We had been sitting here maybe half an hour...if he needed his family to know where he was, then why didn't he call them? Or for that matter, just forget about going out entirely?

He flashed me a dazzling smile. "Take it home. It's the tastiest thing on the menu, trust me. Oh, and before I forget,"

Jasper took out a wallet and pulled out enough crisp bills to cover the meal with nearly twenty dollars to spare. I stared at the pile of money with disbelief.

"For the tip," he explained, laying the paper on the far side of the table. He hesitated briefly before straightening up.

"It's been a pleasure, Leah. Good night."

"Aren't you going to tip your hat?" He smirked and made the motion that made me smile.

"G'night, ma'am," Jasper drawled in a familiar, over-exaggerated accent.

"I bid you a grand farewell, Mr. Whitlock," I mimicked the high-pitched voice of many a Southern Belle. He grinned and retreated, a noticeable swagger in his steps. I giggled despite myself.

Almost immediately, the girls flocked over to my table.

"Oh my god, Leah, that man is so hot," Lauren gasped once he left.

"Agreed," said Jessica.

"...he has a nice ass," Angela said, so uncharacteristically that it made my jaw drop. Jess and Lauren giggled in agreement.

"Um, guys, did you have to take the check at your own table?"

Lauren rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me? This place is so fucking expensive that we only ordered water!"

I laughed and felt a little grateful that they stayed despite having nothing to eat, even if that was only because they wanted to eavesdrop on us. I offered the dish Jasper had left me to the girls, and they devoured it as quickly and gracelessly as I had before. It made me feel a lot better.

. . .

We got home without incident, if a little later than planned. By the time I'd been dropped off, the sun had well sunken behind the cloud-filled sky. And although it certainly wasn't bright before, it was a darkness of nearly ink-caliber when I let myself inside. The porch light stood out like a sword of fire, battling away whatever lurked in such an oppressive state in the leafy, dense forest surrounding my house. The thickness of the trees appeared to me more ominous than usual when I could barely make out their shapes.

I had fully expected Mom to be fast asleep when I entered, drained by whatever set of household errands that she'd been planning to throw herself into today. Instead, when I shoved my set of keys into the lock and jangled the thing until it opened, I was assaulted by the loud sound of sobbing and arms that pulled me into a familiar embrace. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was Mom who had me in a death lock.

"Lee! Oh my god, Lee, you're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay, Mom..." I began, thoroughly confused as to her reaction. But then she ducked her head enough for me to catch a glimpse at what-or rather, who was behind her.

Billy Black.

"What's Mr. Black doing here?" I asked, indignant enough to be impolite. I disentangled myself from my weepy mother and stood with my back to the door, fully aware of the frown on my face. "What's going on? Why are you crying?"

Mom shook her head, her hysteric sobbing giving away to just hysterics. "You didn't answer _any_ of my phone calls, Lee! I called you nearly twenty times! I was so worried; why the hell didn't you answer the phone? This was an emergency! And on top of that, you come home late?"

I ignored her for the time being, seeing as I wasn't going to get any concrete answers with her in this current state. Instead, I looked at the man standing behind her, oddly sheepishly. At the same time, I could detect his immense relief at seeing me in his unlined expression. Something was definitely wrong here. They were acting as though I'd just risen from the dead or something!

"Mr. Black, what's going on? What's Mom talking about?"

He sighed, running a hand through his long, grayed hair. "It's been on the news all night..." Mr. Black said, gesturing over to the living room, where the TV sitting in front of the couch had been left on but the volume too low to make out from here. I took in the mass of tissues that lay sprawled on the coffee table before the couch, and hesitantly walked over.

"...where so far close to thirty bodies have been unearthed in this terrible, destructive fire," a familiar blonde newscaster proclaimed gravely from the studio of the local news station. I searched around briefly for the remote and turned up the volume.

"And we have Doug here who's actually reporting from the scene. Doug?"

The TV flashed to a burnt-out husk of a building, where members of the firefighting squad could clearly be seen rummaging through the charred wreckage in the background. I stared at the screen, even as the reporter named Doug began to sum up what had happened, an unidentifiable dread crept over me. The collapsed, burnt building was wholly unfamiliar to me, but what lurked in the background of the shot was what drew my eyes and held them. The swimsuit store that we had left just hours ago stood still like a set painting in the background of the recent carnage. Though when I had been there, this place had been completely intact. A cold finger of realization pricked me.

It was the bookstore where I had lost my phone.

* * *

THE PLOT HAS ARRIVED!


	5. Nothing Important Happened Today Part I

**A.N.: **Posting this hella long AN to answer some questions. Sorry for the disruption to the story-if you don't have any confusion, you can just skip right on ahead!

There's the question as to why Mr. Black is no longer in a wheelchair in this story. The answer to that is because, for the purposes of this alternate universe, he was never in that car wreck . Billy is present in this story much more than he would have been in _Twilight_, and his part to play is much more, um, action-oriented, not to give away spoilers. Plus, with the causation for his disability being a car accident that isn't directly related to the plot or characterization of _Twilight_, I felt that I could take it out entirely and it wouldn't really effect anything, story or character-wise (disregarding physical traits).

Another question I've been asked pertains to the Cullens' eye colors. If you've been paying attention, you've probably already noticed that both Jasper and Alice have _purple eyes_ in this fanfiction, something that greatly confuses Leah (and, I'm guessing, some readers). I think it was somewhere in either Eclipse or Breaking Dawn where SMeyer said something about some newborn or blood-drinker with red eyes masking this by wearing blue contacts, which gave him/her the appearance of violet eyes. Yeah, there's your answer; Jasper and Alice are actually blood-drinkers, and are wearing contacts. Leah doesn't realize this now, but I thought some of you might catch on from the contact thing mentioned in either of those books. Just in case you didn't, though (and I don't blame you; it's hard for me to pick out individual details in any of the _Twilight_ books, as they all kind of blend together for me), here it is =D

**DISCLAIMER:** Nothing from Twilight belongs to me; it's all Stephenie Meyer's.

* * *

**4. Nothing Important Happened Today, Part I  
**

My entire body remained numb, frozen. It seemed like the only thing to move in a long while was my heart, beating its erratic rhythm as it lodged itself painfully in my throat. I kept my eyes glued to the screen in front of me, my thoughts bending around one singular curve.

What if I had still been inside during that fire?

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked up to see Billy standing there with a grave face.

"I-I don't understand..." I choked out. "I was just there, maybe an hour ago..." I didn't think anyone could hear the breaks in my voice over the sound of the report. Mom came behind me and enveloped me in a one-armed hug. Her tears stained my skin. She was still crying.

"I called you thirteen times," she said softly. "When you didn't pick up, I...I thought the worst." I felt her swallow against me.

"You don't have _any_ idea what that feels like."

"My phone died," I mumbled lamely, not wanting to admit that, on top of everything else, I'd completely forgotten to turn it back on after I silenced it during the movie. We watched the reporter named Doug navigate the wreckage for moments in silence before Mom spoke again.

"I was about to come and get you, you know. I called Billy and I told him that I was going to go after my daughter. And naturally, he demanded to come too." I nodded, not quite understanding where she was going with this, but it at least explained Mr. Black's presence in the house.

I heard Mr. Black's quiet exhalation behind me. His expression was defeated when he sat himself heavily on the plush sofa. Whatever Mom was building up to was something they'd obviously discussed. Could it have been the reason for the fight the other night? There was still a lump of disbelief knotting up my throat, but I felt a gnawing sensation of growing foreboding.

"Mom?" I whispered uncertainly, forcing myself away to look into her wet eyes. She was smiling, but I realized for the first time how absolutely drained she looked, how tired they _both_ looked.

"Honey," she began, in a hesitant tone that had rapidly become familiar during my turbulent stay in Forks.

"Mr. Black, that is to say...Billy... He's, well..." Mom looked away and took a shuddering breath, her hands on my shoulders tightening briefly as she steeled herself. "He's your father."

It was so strange how those barely audible syllables managed to drop through the haze in my mind like lead. Once more, I was speechless. I turned to Mr. Black, who was studiously keeping his gaze on the television, his jaw held tight. Mom was looking at me but avoiding my gaze. I knew that my expression mirrored my horror but I couldn't reign in the shock and _hurt _that I felt.

Billy Black was my _father? _

Mom nodded to the thoughts I spoke aloud, her face still unsure. Well, of course she was unsure. I felt a surge of sudden rage at her, her silence feeling a lot like betrayal. Anger bubbled in my blood like a well of lava, and then I just...snapped.

"AND YOU JUST DECIDED TO TELL ME THIS NOW?" Both Billy and Mom visibly recoiled at my shouting, their combined guilt hanging palpably in the tense room.

"Honey, I just—try to understand that I—"

"THAT YOU WHAT? THAT YOU WERE TOO BUSY FUCKING AROUND ON DAD FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS TO DEAL WITH IT?"

Mom fell silent. Her red-rimmed eyes were wide and shedding tears with new hurt. Above all, she looked completely staggered. I've never actively confronted her before, always preferring to duck away from her emotions or problems like one would with a complete stranger. But she was a complete stranger. And I couldn't let something like this go—not coming from someone I barely knew. If she'd been anything like the Mom she had pretended to be...but she wasn't.

"Leah," Billy started, half-raised from the couch. He looked alarmed despite his calm voice, but I barely paid him a glance, my eyes narrowed on my now-sobbing Mom.

"You know what? I feel sorry for Dad now. You'd just gotten married, didn't you? And then you must have gotten pregnant... I bet he was still willing to work it out. Actually, knowing Dad, I know he was. Did you just throw the divorce papers in his face? Did you just throw him around like a used toy?"

She kept her face hidden in her hands, but I knew she was listening.

"At least I can understand him, you know?" I said quietly. "AT LEAST DAD DIDN'T LIE TO ME EVERY SINGLE STEP OF THE _FUCKING_ WAY! WHAT THE _FUCK_, MOM?"

My voice cracked on the last words, tears fighting their way out of my eyes. I focused on keeping them inside, but they tore at me like my anger, my bitterness at my failing relationship with Mom, the betrayal... It was all too much, these emotions. They clawed at each other inside me, fighting for dominance. My pounding heart thudded out the measured seconds of torture, and I felt like I was going to explode.

The last thing I registered was the look of abject horror on Billy Black's face before terrible, terrible pain engulfed me into a black pit of unthinking consciousness.

. . .

I woke up in an instant, the nightmare that had spurred me into awareness already slipping out of my mind. I felt physically sick, like someone had dropped a battering ram on my body while I was asleep and simultaneously siphoned some serious booze into my mouth to produce the amount of soreness that plagued both my body and mind. My brain was swollen, heavy, and sluggish. My muscles twitched like I'd just sprinted an all-day marathon. I was awake, but I sat there for several moments in anguish, deliberating over whether I should even _attempt_ to get up.

It took a lot of effort to sit up, and my body screamed in pain. I groaned, gritted my teeth, and wondered abruptly why the hell I was suffering like I spent the night cliff diving. I swiped a hand over my forehead, willing the pressure on my temples to disappear while I swept my eyes over the bright room.

I was in my own room, which in itself wasn't surprising. What caused my eyes to widen and my blood to pound was the fact that it took me several seconds to identify it as my room. The dresser was in splinters by my bed. The bed covers themselves lay in shreds strewn along the floor, feathers settled like a fine layer of dust on the ground. My desk was smashed in a single corner, an entire leg crippled and holding precariously. I was somewhat relieved to see that my computer appeared to be in working order, but not enough to stop the amount of dread that filled me.

Who did this? Did someone break in last night and destroy my room? But why didn't they take my computer? And if that was the case, how could I have slept through that?

Only one other possibility came to mind—it was at once the most plausible and yet, utterly unthinkable. No matter how angry or hurt I had been last night, I couldn't remember ever turning that fury out on the furniture. In fact, I was sure that I'd been, above all other things, incredibly drained. That must have been why I hadn't even bothered changing out of my clothes and simply went to bed in my bra and panties. Though it puzzled me why I wasn't wearing the pair that I had been wearing yesterday...

I groaned again and clamped my hands against my head, pushing against the pain nestled there in the hopes of dispelling it. What did it matter? That didn't suggest a thing as to the state of my room. I blearily thought about my options here. I knew that Mom would have to find out about this soon, whether that be now or later. I couldn't possibly hide this from her. One, because I was sure that I couldn't keep her out of my room forever. Two, because her room was directly beneath mine. Any loud bangs or suspicious noises would surely have been heard. She might even question me about it when I went downstairs...as much as I dreaded the task.

I didn't want to see her face for a while. I knew that it would only cause me to yell at her again. It was still hard for me to believe that Billy Black was my father...and that she'd never once told me about it. If even thinking about it was getting me angry, I _knew _that if I saw her that I'd start yelling again. I sighed and ran a hand through my messy hair. A shower would be in good order. And maybe clear my head. I could figure out what to do after wards.

I spent more time than I had anticipated under the shower spray after glimpsing the first bruise. I'd been squirting some soap on my loofah and there it was: a bruise on my leg roughly the size of a golf ball. And it was nowhere near the bruise I'd acquired when I tripped yesterday...in fact, that bruise had disappeared. Puzzled, I propped my leg up on the edge of the tub to examine it. And saw some bruises, these ones dotting my right hip. There was an especially large patch of discolored skin on my stomach. I started shaking. It took a lot of effort to finish getting cleaned off because then a slew of ideas as to last night invaded my mind, each scenario more frightening than the last.

What if I had been drugged? Needles left bruises, right? And it certainly looked like there'd been a struggle... There was now a whole to meaning to the muscle soreness, one that brought the taste of bile into my mouth with it. What if I'd been raped...?

I shut down that avenue of thought and concentrated on scrubbing down. I stepped out of the shower shivering from both my thoughts and the water that had gone cold and quickly began drying down, my throat unbearably tight. I ran a brush through the tangles in my hair with rough, unforgiving strokes. I got dressed in dark jeans, a loose, green, unfortunately lacy peasant top and a white jacket. I had no desire to go to the beach today, but I also wanted to get as far away from my room as possible. And I had promised Jessica, with no word to tell her of the possibility of _not _going; to skip out last minute would have been incredibly rude. I didn't want to be so suddenly isolated after just a week.

Plus, it would get me away from Mom. And as I'd already told her I'd be going to the beach today, it wasn't going to give the impression that I was avoiding her on purpose, even though I planned to do just that for the next few days.

As if on cue, my phone rang from its charging position next to the wall outlet. I exited the bathroom and slid down the wall, picking up the phone and placing it next to my still wet hair.

"Yeah?"

"Leah?" came a voice that I recognized. A small smile came and went.

"Hey, Ang," I said. Angela was quiet for a moment before she replied.

"Leah, you sound really tired. I'm sorry if I just woke you up, but—"

"No, no, it's fine. I woke up a while ago, but... Jesus Christ, I have like the mother of all hangovers."

"...Oh." She seemed a little off-put by my admission to drinking. I mentally sighed. It was the only real explanation for why I'd show up to the beach looking like someone had just taken a two by four to my face, despite what that might attach to my rumor resume.

"I just had the best night of my life. I found out that my mom and dad split 'cause she's been cheating on him and that I'm the bastard child of this prick." I rolled my eyes. "Cut me some slack, Ang."

Some part of me railed against dumping all of this on Angela but I found that the other, larger part that was still angry at Mom simply didn't care. If I was going to tell everyone that I'd been binge-drinking, then why couldn't I at least justify it?

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said immediately, but obviously sincerely. "Are you okay? Does that mean that you don't want to come down to the beach today? Because I can call Jessica, and she would understand completely."

I stared at the littered floor in front of me, suddenly guilty. "...yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, Ang. And I'm still going to the beach today. I just...I just need to get away," I said truthfully.

"Okay, Leah. Um..." I could practically see Angela turning a finger in her sandy hair, obviously deliberating something. "You can talk about it, if you like...?" She sounded so unsure, but not in the way that indicated that she was dreading me taking up her offer. I realized that she was afraid of being rejected and it made me feel a surge of affection for the girl.

"I can tell you guys all about it when we get to the beach...when my head stops pounding..." I promised.

"Okay. See you later?"

"Oh, Ang, what time is Jess or whoever picking me up?"

"Oh! I was actually calling to tell you that, sorry. Jessica told me that she'll bring Mike around to your house at three. That's an hour from now," she supplied helpfully. I nodded before I realized that she couldn't see it.

"Thanks Ang. I'll see ya."

"Bye, Leah."

I clicked the phone off and leaned my head up against the wall, still feeling sore and damn tired. And, all of a sudden, ravenous. I sighed before picking myself up to dry off my hair and do my make up before going downstairs. If Mom was down there, it was good to stall.

I padded down the stairs in a quiet tip toe, thinking about how sad it was that I had to sneak downstairs to get some food. Luckily, it appeared that nobody was home. Relieved, I practically bounded over to the fridge, taking out anything edible and small enough to fit in a sandwich and setting it on the counter top. My sandwich ended up being three or four inches thick, but I ate it like I hadn't seen food in several weeks. I'd just finished dumping my completely empty plate in the sink when my phone rang again, this time from Jessica.

"Yep?"

"Yeah, Lee? We're, like, two minutes away," she said, the combined sounds of the car and the people in it quite loud in the background.

"Okay."

I pocketed the thing and tugged on some socks and boots, carefully tucking in my jeans. Sand in the toes was high up there on my list of pet peeves. I didn't think about how I might look a little bit weird, wearing boots to the beach when everyone else was probably in sandals. Who cared? It was most likely already in the early sixties next to the ocean—chilly according to my Texan standards—and I'd be the one laughing when everyone else would be complaining about their poor, cold feet.

I rushed outside just as a large SUV pulled into the driveway. Mike waved at me cheerfully from his position in the drivers' seat, a goofy smile on his face no doubt caused by the fact that Jessica was sitting in the passenger seat. I jogged over to the open door and clambered inside next to Angela and Lauren, with Eric sitting in the furthest back row with Ben. Seeing the crowd sitting comfortably in Mike's car, I wondered who could possibly have been left out for Tyler to have to take his truck down to the beach as well.

Mike chuckled at my voiced question. "I actually think he was hoping for you to ride with him,"

I raised my eyebrows, not fully understanding until Jessica sighed exasperatedly. "Lee, I know this is hard for you to understand but sometimes when one person is really attracted to the other, it's called a _crush—_"

I laughed. "Tyler doesn't have a crush on me. I barely even talk to him, let alone see him!"

"You think that what happened with Jasper is any different?" the curly-haired girl said pointedly, turning to meet my eyes with her skeptical gaze.

"Ah—" I didn't know whether to confirm or deny that. On one hand, my so-called _crush _was not the reason why I was so eager to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with him. On the other, it would be weird to deny any sort of attraction to him when just yesterday I'd nearly died with the prospect of going on a date with him. I frowned.

"Huh? What? What went on with Jasper?" Eric piped up from the back. Ben didn't appear interested. Lauren was examining her nails with a veneer of boredom, but her sharp eyes told otherwise. Angela was chewing on her lip anxiously, probably thinking about what I'd told her on the phone. She certainly looked concerned, if not strictly for my well being.

"That's not fair, Jessica," Angela said quietly. I shook my head.

"Nah, Jess is right. I just can't wrap my head around the fact. One week in and I've already got two guys after me. God only knows why."

Jessica gave a little disbelieving laugh and returned to her front-facing position. I mouthed a silent thanks to Angela, and soon Mike started up some meaningless chatter that filled the rest of the ride.

. . .

The sky was unbelievably clear, and as sunny as I could remember it being. The sun seemed less bright, though—that kind of white, less intense light that would be part of a Hollywood movie, a fraction of the yellow beam I was used to. I remembered that the farther North a person went, the farther the tilt of the Earth from the sun. I silently wondered if that was why the sun seemed so much _more_ in Texas than here, or whether my mind was conjuring properties that didn't exist based on so many of my happier memories that took place in the ever-present sun.

Tyler's van pulled up to Mike's car moments after we arrived, and I was surprised to see that he did, in fact, have some people riding with him. It was a pack of girls that I didn't immediately recognize, but once exiting the van they instantly took up with Lauren and sauntered off on their own way.

I watched them go blankly, absently wishing that I had dressed lighter. It was only sixty-something like I'd predicted, but I felt sweltering. I didn't notice Mike approaching me until he began talking.

"See? Told you it'd be nice out today. It's practically _hot_."

I looked at him balefully over my shoulder. "You didn't say anything of the sort. And compared to the regular hundred-and-ten degree weather typical in Texas, this is practically _cold_."

He eyed my jacket and full-length jeans. "Yeah, I noticed you shivering there, Leah."

I rolled my eyes. "Actually, I'm hot. Hold this for me," I said, quickly shedding my jacket and throwing it at his face. He caught it with a grin and stowed it in the car. Jessica sauntered up to me.

"Hey, Lee! You gonna hit the waves with us?" Her white shirt belied her colorful bikini, the one she'd bought just yesterday. Which reminded me...

"Uh, no. Listen, Jess..." I lowered my voice without knowing why. Her eyes grew suitably concerned.

"Didja see the news last night? I mean, about the book store."

Jessica's blue eyes began to resemble saucers. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was weird. And scary... I mean, what if we'd still been looking for your phone, you know?"

"Yeah, well..." I muttered lamely, not enjoying the way she implied that if we were to have become charred corpses last night, it would have been because of me and my phone.

"Hey...Lee, you okay? It's no big deal, right? I mean, we're still here."

"Oh, well, that wasn't what I was thinking about just now. Sorry." I was still thinking about this morning...and my trashed room...and the fact that Billy Black was my father...

Jessica frowned. "Well, then, what were you thinking about? Why'd you bring it up?"

I bit my lip, torn between my desire to share my concerns with someone and my other wish to survive the school year without being labeled a freak.

"Something...happened...last night. I'm sorry. It's just...I can't get it out of my head," I said truthfully, if a little vaguely. Jessica looked suspicious.

"Okay, Lee. But you don't look so good. If it's something heavy, you can tell me, y'know?"

"Right." _Sorry, Jess. I know you mean well, but I don't trust you not to spread this around the school._

"Oh..." Her blue eyes seemed suddenly keenly intent on whatever was behind me. I turned around, only seeing the sands of the beach with the few people who came out here besides us. I looked back at Jessica, confusion written on my face.

"Oh my gosh," she said squeakily. "Guys from the res are here."

I scanned the gray sand again, quickly spotting the few guys who did indeed look like they'd come down from the reservation, though I couldn't see why she'd been drooling over them so much. There was a really tall, burly man with short, spiky black hair who looked quite older than us, trailed by two younger guys who seemed to be more our age. The taller one of the younger guys caught my stare and abruptly began waving. I glanced around swiftly before realizing that he was waving at _me._

"Um," Jessica giggled, "do you know him?"

"No...oh, wait," I peered closer at the boy now making his way excitedly over here. "Yeah...that's Jacob. He was the guy who fixed up my car for me. I think he kind of likes me." _And he shares at _least_ one parent with me, _I finished in my head as Jacob approached.

"Hey Clearwater," he said with forced casualness, though he was slightly out of breath from his little jog over here. I fought the huge smile from his antics off of my face.

"Hi, Jacob." We grinned at each other for a moment before I was shaken out of it with Jessica's sharp elbow. "Uh, this is Jessica."

"Hi," Jessica said sweetly, extending a hand that Jacob stared at before shaking.

"Jacob, listen..." I began, thinking about what my mom had revealed last night. Had he known before then?

"I need to talk to you," he said seriously, dropping Jessica's hand along with most of his grin. I blinked in slight surprise before recovering.

"Um, sure."

Jacob glanced at Jessica before lowering his voice. "Alone."

"Okay," I agreed, silently relieved that I didn't have to dismiss Jessica myself. I assumed that he wanted to talk about Billy and Mom, and I knew that no excuse I could tell Jessica would get her off my back for asking without telling her the full story. She'd probably just assume that I had a crush on him, too.

"Okay, then..." Jessica said slowly, eyes darting suspiciously between the two of us. "I'll just be over there with Lauren and them if you need me, Lee." And she darted off, presumably going to lather herself in the same suntan oil that the other group of girls were currently.

"So, Jacob—"

"Not here," Jacob interrupted, glancing around as if for potential spies. He grabbed my wrist and began to lead me to the beginnings of the forest that flanked the rocky side of the beach. He led me just far enough into the trees that we were still in sight of the beach, but so that nobody could possibly hear our voices. The foliage provided a thick green barrier, giving he illusion of privacy and seclusion even when I knew that were surrounded by wildlife.

"Okay, so what'd you wanna talk about?" I said finally, after a long silence stretched between us. I stared hard at his face, though he kept avoiding my eyes. Jacob looked awfully uncomfortable despite initiating this whole thing; he constantly shifted his weight and ran a hand through his hair several times. It was now sticking up comically in multiple cowlicks, though I resisted the urge to point it out.

"Leah, I just..." he sighed in frustration, not able to force the words to come. He frowned at the ground for a moment before meeting my eyes.

"Did you have something to say, first?" he asked. Apparently he needed time to steel himself. I just hoped that he wasn't about to, you know, confess his crush or anything. Oh, how awkward that would have been, especially if I still had to patiently explain our new status as half-siblings. I figured I'd get that over with before he tried again to spit it out and potentially hurt himself.

"Your dad was at my house last night," I said bluntly. Jacob nodded, his expression suddenly clear of its anguish.

"Oh, yeah he left yesterday. Said something about groceries, but came home empty handed. I'd wondered where he'd been," he said musingly.

"Yeah, well...he was with Mom. Apparently both of them thought I'd died in a fire or something, so your father rushed over."

"Died in a fire?"

"It's a long story," I said tiredly.

"But...what was he doing at your house? Is that why he sounded so alarmed to do the groceries? I don't get it." Confusion knitted his brow once more.

I took a deep breath, not knowing how best to explain this. I figured I'd just out and say it—spare him the extra confusion that came with euphemisms and metaphors.

"Jacob, your father is my father."

Jacob looked at me strangely for a moment before bursting into barks of laughter. I waited patiently for him to finish with raised eyebrows.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he chuckled. I swiped a hand over my face in exasperation.

"My mom had sex with your dad, and I'm what came out of it. You understand _now?_"

"Yeah, but...you can't be..." I waited until his disbelieving smile completely died, replaced by the wide eyes of realization.

"Holy shit. You're my sister!" He looked slightly green at the prospect. I rolled my eyes.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"That means...oh hell, no," Jacob whispered, hands coming to clamp at the sides of his head with his growing horror.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You thought I was pretty, right? Well, I feel guilty for all the times I thought you looked cute, too." I said in a deadpan. He shook his head, eyes still wide.

"No, no, that's not—well, that too, but... Oh, fuck."

I frowned, concern beginning to settle over me. "Jacob..." I started. "Does this have to do with what you were trying to tell me earlier?"

"Yes—I mean, yeah, um..." He was still in the middle of his earth-shattering revelation. Feeling a twinge of frustration, I grabbed his head and forced his eyes to me.

"Jacob! Jacob, calm down. Calm down and tell me what happened," I demanded, both concerned and on-edge. I felt anxious, my stomach dropping warningly like a stone thrown into a well...like what he had to say was really important, that I needed to hear it...

"Leah," he croaked weakly, his dark eyes shining like polished glass. "Leah, you're going to die."


	6. Nothing Important Happened Today Part II

Happy New Years/belated Christmas? Here's a present!

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does.

* * *

**5. Nothing Important Happened Today, Part II**

A heavy silence descended. I actually think I heard some crickets chirping from somewhere around me as my brain frantically tried to dissect what had just erupted from Jacob's mouth. I was going to die. I was going to _die. _I was going to...

"What?" I asked, the idea still having not penetrated the thick fog around my brain. It was like hearing someone utter a line of Spanish. Familiar, but still completely meaningless.

"You're related to me? Billy Black is our father?" Jacob repeated lowly, as though checking for confirmation. How was what I said so incomprehensible to him? He was the one who said that I was going to die for whatever reason!

"I think what you just told me deserves more of an explanation than us being related, don't you?" I snarled, feeling a blast of sudden anger. Mom...doing what she'd done, the stress of the move, learning of my almost-death, and then being told again by _Jacob Black _of all people that I was going to die inexplicably...it was beginning to pile up. One more metaphorical straw on my metaphorical camel's back and there would be unpleasant consequences.

"No, no, Leah, you don't understand," he said very quickly, eyes wide and panicked.

"Then tell me. Tell me right now."

"If we really are related, there's something—a condition—that you need to know about."

I stared hard into his eyes. They were dark, almost black, and so similar to mine that it was a little jarring. I didn't know how I couldn't have seen the resemblance before. Maybe because I had never searched his eyes as intently as I was doing now. But they met mine earnestly, honestly, with a depth of fear that made a small part of me quiver. If he believed it, believed that I was going to die...was I? I felt alive. I felt healthy...normal, well not normal exactly but not entirely strange.

Then I thought to the weird mood swings, the constant hunger, the loss of fat all over my body when I hadn't even done anything to provoke such a change...the fire. Was someone trying to kill me? Did being the daughter of Billy Black carry the threat of death due to some extremely powerful enemies? Although my anger had dissipated, thinking over the possible implications of Jacob's cryptic statement had me both curious and terrified. Did I even want to know the answer?

I took a deep breath and swallowed even though my throat felt incredibly dry.

"D-does it have to do with...what's been happening to me recently?" I said, very slowly to banish the shake from my voice.

"So you've noticed," came a new, deeper voice. I jumped, then spun around to face its origin. One of the guys from the beach that Jessica had fawned over and Jacob had trailed after. From far away, I had sensed that he was older than us, but up close it was obvious. Firstly, he was _huge, _at least six-foot-four and towering over both me and Jacob. Second, there was a certain definition to his jaw and cheeks that didn't exist on boys my age... well, unless you counted the Cullens.

"Excuse me, but who the hell are you?" I snapped, not appreciating his expression of amusement at arriving unannounced or his apparent eavesdropping on my and Jacob's conversation.

He laughed, a low sound that held a lot more darkness to it than mirth, and my feet stumbled backwards without me even registering the action. I was confused, anxious, and now more terrified than I had been before.

"Leah, this is Sam Ulley," Jacob said quickly. Then he addressed Sam in a lower, angrier tone: "Sam, what the hell? I was just about to tell her. You _said _I could tell her!"

Sam's face showed no expression, but his eyes glittered dangerously. "You were taking too long."

I looked at Jacob to gauge his reaction. He looked a bit paler in the dim light, almost like he'd swallowed something that was threatening to come back up again. He also seemed defiant, but didn't say anything to indicate this to the man named Sam.

"Will somebody tell me what's going on?" I asked when it looked like their little glaring contest was going to continue for quite some while. "If I'm going to die...?" My throat felt strangled, and I was unable to complete the sentence.

Sam's eyes flicked to my horror-struck face, then back to Jacob with something akin to incredulity on his face.

"You told her that she was going to die? You _warned her_?"

"I wasn't just going to sit back and let it happen—" hissed Jacob.

"We're in the middle of a fucking war! Goddamnit, Black, I tell you to do one thing without fucking it up. One thing, and you couldn't even manage to do it right."

A war? What warning? Was my life in danger because of some kind of gang violence or something? My mind raced to draw the most outrageous conclusions from those vague statements. I was dying to know what had set Jacob's face like that, what was causing that stiffness and dark tone in Sam's voice.

There was a small beat of silence in which my heart climbed to my throat. Then, Jacob's voice again, so quiet that it sounded almost mournful.

"She doesn't deserve this. She needs to know. And we should protect her."

Sam's face changed, his expression accusatory, hostile. "We? '_We _need to protect her'? How about _you_, Black? You're the one who's putting the safety of the pack behind the safety of some girl!"

"Are you guys talking about me? What about my safety? Goddamnit, I am _so _confused, you have no idea! Will somebody _please _explain to me what it going on?" I finally shouted.

Sam frowned at me as though just now realizing my existence while Jacob sighed and moved to stand in front of me.

"Yes, Leah, this is about you. This has everything to do with you, and I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner but we just had to be sure. We didn't actually _know _until last night. You're kind of what they call a special case." Jacob looked at me with concern in his eyes, while I remained completely in the dark, and now aggravated at his waffling.

"Just spit it out!" I barked, feeling that familiar surge of magnified anger once more.

"Mood swings, increased appetite, smell, healing, instincts... You're one of us. You're a werewolf." It was Sam who had spoken, and it was Sam who received my uncomprehending stare.

"A-a what?" Of all the answers that had been evaluated and discarded for sheer ridiculousness in my mind as I had tried to follow their earlier conversation, the idea of being a werewolf hadn't even been in _thinking _vicinity. In fact, I hadn't even thought of werewolves a single time outside of reading _Harry Potter _since I'd come to Forks. Me standing there and balking at him as though he had just informed me that my mother was a fish was a pretty valid response. It was my next reaction that had them standing back in alarm.

I laughed. At first, it was an uncontrollable burble, a chuckle at the absurdity of such a situation. And then it became howling, barking, obnoxious guffawing. I laughed like I was insane, and it suddenly hit me how completely and utterly my life was slinking downhill. Like someone had stuck me on the fastest train to crazy town, and now it was being derailed under the sheer weight of ridiculousness. Honestly, what could have possibly topped the string of events I'd experienced so far besides some cliché realization of my "true nature" or some other bullshit? So Dad wasn't my real dad, was wizardry also heritable from the purportedly magical genes of Billy Black?

I saw Sam shoot Jacob a significant look, one that Jacob returned with equal fierceness. Then he stared at me with some kind of pitying half-smile on his face that reeked of awkward frustration. I managed to snort something between my giggles.

"Nice try, guys. And with the state my life's in right now, I just might believe you!"

That weak smile persisted, the "you're completely missing the point Leah, but it sure is kind of charming in an awkward way to watch you do so" expression that made my laughter die in my throat, and my gut freeze in horrible realization. I felt my smile fall off my face with an echo that only resounded in my mind. The forest, I realized, had turned unimaginably silent. Almost as if all animals in the near vicinity had long stopped their little mundane activities to watch the unpredictable outcome of such a bizarre conversation.

"Oh God." My hand rose to cover my involuntary gasp. "Jesus Christ, you guys are serious." It was a statement, the way I said it, but in the stillness of the forest it rang like a stage whisper on a plastic Hollywood set.

"I know you don't believe me—" began Jacob, hesitantly taking a step closer to me. I staggered back.

"No fucking way, Jacob! Of course I believe you! That's actually the most sensible thing I've ever heard anyone say in my life, ever!" I heard myself say in a voice cracking with hysterics. I was panicking, and the words poured out of my like projectile vomit, each sarcastic syllable rousing a flinch from Jacob. I knew I was taking out all of the day's stresses on him. But the heavy guilt he now wore made me believe that he deserved it, that he was intentionally screwing around, being cruel.

"A werewolf! A fucking werewolf!" I whispered disbelievingly.

All the while, I noticed Sam watching the exchange with a mild sort of dispassion, maybe even disdain, as if the entire operation was a waste of his time. As Jacob struggled to recompose himself, wringing his hands at my high-pitched sarcasm, Sam seemed itching to cut in. And when the silence fell once more, he did.

"Clearwater." Two syllables spoken in a calm voice that nonetheless had my head snapping around with an audible crack. The pain of having my neck joint popped never reached me through the thick of the emotion I was currently experiencing, however, and I barely blinked.

"And what's your part in this, huh? I don't even _know you, _why are you talking to m—"

"Shut up." Again, he was so calm, so controlled, and it made him intimidating, it gave him the aura of a sleeping lion. So much strength buried beneath impassivity, and, sensing this, I promptly stopped talking. His hulking frame and current display of defined, bulging muscles definitely played a big part in my obedience as well.

Seconds ticked by as I waited, once more, for him to speak. Sam appeared to be mentally debating something, crossing his arms and lowering his eyes in thought. Then, he stepped back, just into the outskirts of where the trees began to thin and give way to the beach, and instructed me to do the same.

I carefully obeyed, not once taking my eyes off of either of them. Jacob, I noticed, didn't step away from Sam, but looked increasingly anxious at the older man's actions, almost as if he knew what came after the strange command and didn't approve.

At first I had no idea what I was looking at. One second Sam's eyes were tightly closed, his body stiffened, and then rapid movement, an explosion of dark texture. Almost like fur...but it couldn't be...

Within seconds, a gigantic beast stood before me, easily occupying the space that Sam had ordered me to open up between us. A hand clapped over my mouth before I could scream, and I momentarily looked away from the terrifying, impossible _thing _before me only to briefly register Jacob as the origin of the hand, his dark eyes focused ahead and his jaw clenched with surprising nonchalance. I stared uncomprehendingly at the massive creature before me, seconds where my brain seemed to just stall and take it in.

It was a huge wolf. The main portion of its body stretched several feet, towering over both me, Jacob, and the actual Sam Ulley (well, his human form, anyway). Its fur was a deep black, shining like obsidian even on under the particularly overcast lighting of the cloudy gray sky. The only trace of the man who had been standing there mere seconds ago existed in his eyes: when I had the courage to meet them, they were of the same heavy-lidded shape and dark coal color, emanating fierceness in their intensity.

And once I had comprehended the fact that I was staring at a giant wolf that had transformed before my eyes, my rational nature bucked in direct challenge of the evidence before me.

"No..." I whispered. Jacob's hand had migrated from my mouth to my shoulder after he sensed that I was through freaking out.

"I don't...I can't..." I struggled to put the extent of the enormous emotions I was feeling into words.

I heard Jacob's quiet sigh, his eyes locked onto Sam's with a kind of expression that belied his disapproval. Despite that, however, he continued to carry out the older man's will, obviously following him as some sort of leader figure.

"This is what you are, Leah," came Jacob's voice, a low murmur that conveyed absolutely no feeling.

"And if you accepted it, you would have your place in our pack."

I tore my gaze away from the wolf form of Sam, his words breaking the awe and terror the sight held over me. Spinning around to face Jacob, I asked:

"What do you mean, 'pack?' There are...more of you?" I couldn't, at that moment, process the image of multiple creatures like that one existing in the same space, the same world. I was dizzy with even the idea.

"Yeah. More." He suddenly looked uncomfortable, and his eyes avoided mine.

There was that alarm bell all over again, a dark sensation that flared in response to some unknown danger.

"Jake? What aren't you telling me?"

He looked at me for a second, then refocused his gaze once more on the dark eyes of the wolf as though silently asking for permission. My heart began thrumming a warning in my ears.

"We're at war."

My breath came out of me in a rush. "What? What are you—?"

Jacob sucked in a lungful of air, his eyes never meeting mine but staring somewhere over my shoulder as he began to speak.

"Werewolves—well, shapeshifters: our kind, exist in this world, but there are also other creatures of lore."

"'Shapeshifters?'" I repeated dumbly.

"Yeah. Werewolves are the ones who are bitten, transformed, into half-man, half-beasts. They're uncontrollable in the beginning, and truly immortal...but they only transform during the full moon. No exceptions. While we..." His brow furrowed as he paused uncertainly. "Well, you saw Sam. All of us are the same. We transform when we want to, but always into a wolf. We're can't live forever. If we choose to stop phasing, we die like any other human."

"What about the war? Who are you, we, at war with?" _We. _I had already decided to believe them. And how could I not, with that giant reminder at my back? Hearing it breathe, feeling those breaths shake the strands of hair on the back of my head?

"There's werewolves, shapeshifters, and God knows how many other myths running around out there, undetected. But the only other one that we know of for sure are the blood drinkers, vampires." The word drew a shudder down my spine, the horrible feeling of my fear growing.

And then I knew. Call it my now finely honed instincts, but that flare of danger was not one so unfamiliar to me. I had to struggle to speak, my throat now completely dry.

"I know some of them, don't I? There are...vampires here in Forks, aren't there?"

Jacob gave me a strange look. "You've felt them? So you already know about the Cullens..." He seemed to be thinking fast, his eyes narrowing under another frown. Hearing the family's name was another jolt, and once more proof of a phenomenon thought never to exist. Vampirism. And there were vampires in the school? There was a vampire doctor! And that meant that Jasper was a vampire. I thought my heart would stop.

I had dinner with a vampire.

But that would explain the day I had first met him, how dizzy and nauseous I was. It was an instinctual aversion to his entire kind, the whole of what I really was seeking to get away from my most natural enemy. And the fire that day at Port Angeles... A sickening lurch accompanied the conclusion that this new information was causing me to draw. There was no "accident." That fire had been started most likely because they had been trying to kill me, after sensing what I was.

Then I frowned, another idea having occurred to me. If Jasper had been trying to kill me, why take chances? He could have easily lured me into an alley or into his car with him at the time (though I hated to admit that I would have been that susceptible to him...it was unfortunately true) and done the job while I was being giggly and unaware. The fact that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity, even went through an extra effort to excuse himself barely after we'd left the book store...it actually _prevented_ me from burning down with the building. It was this doubt that had me pursuing the matter of the Cullens further.

"If the Cullens are actually vampires, how come...?"

"We hold a treaty with them. They don't kill those in Forks. And, in return for being allowed to live here, they also help guard against more of their kind from entering. Forks is kind of a no-war zone, with both of us trying to keep it that way."

I nodded, but I wasn't really thinking about Fork's neutral status. The notion of what I was was still washing over me, and now that I understood, I had no idea what to do next. Join the pack? I didn't even know about the _existence _of it up until five minutes ago. Go back to school and pretend everything was normal? I didn't think I had the strength or the ability to be able to fight my own memory, fight Jacob's words and Sam's transformation burning themselves in the back of my mind. Could I go back to school as a shapeshifter? Could I face the Cullens, knowing that at any moment they could snap and drain the entire populace of their blood? Could I even go back home?

Thinking of home brought another realization to mind. My trashed room.

"I've transformed," I said slowly, the epiphany coming to me even as I spoke. "That's why my room is destroyed. That's why you guys are confronting me. Why not earlier? Why couldn't you prevent it?" I felt the blood drain from my face when I imagined how _that_ must have happened. Was it before or after Mom's and Billy's revelation? Was my rage what had triggered it? I still had so many questions, even though it felt like we had been talking for the better part of an hour. I knew that Jessica would come to fetch me soon (probably of the opinion that if we had been alone for that long we must have been having sex), and that I only had a limited amount of time to ask.

"For the longest time, we had no idea," Jake muttered, looking suitably frustrated seemingly at the mere memory. "I mean, you smelled like one of us. And your mom was descended from the tribe. But we just couldn't be sure—until last night. And you're right; the transformation _is _the reason why I'm talking to you now."

"And how to prevent it?" I asked again.

Jacob stared at me for a long time.

"You want to stop shapeshifting?"

I crossed my arms. "Yeah, if I end up destroying everything I own every single time it happens." I sighed. "I don't want this. I don't want to be a-a freak. I don't want to fight a war against people I only just became aware of a few minutes ago."

Jake took a deep breath, appearing to steel himself for something unpleasant.

"You can't," he said flatly.

"What? But—"

There was a sound so sudden and terrifying that I jumped and shrieked, whipping around involuntary to find its source. Sam had bent low to the ground, his fur bristling in all directions like an agitated cat's tail, his mouth baring all of his sharp fangs. He was growling. He was growling at _me_. And his teeth looked very, horribly sharp.

A split second spent in sheer terror, my hair freezing on the back of my neck, my heart drumming loudly in my ears, and then suddenly I realized that he wasn't growling at me. And the reason for that appeared in the form of a streak of white, something too fast to be seen by the naked eye. It ripped into the wolf's side with an incredible ease despite the creature's size, plowing it into the ground. My eyes quickly darted to where Jacob was, only I saw nothing but the forest behind him. My body was seized with panic; I frantically searched for him, wildly spinning around until I noticed his prone form stretched along the ground, scarily still. Then I screamed.

My plea for help lasted all of maybe a second before I felt an icy hand on my mouth and another clamp hard around my waist, knocking the air from me as I was suddenly sped into motion at a speed that made my eyes water. I was then dumped, unceremoniously, into the plush seat of what I thought was a car, and with my head whirling, promptly shoved it out of the open window to vomit. I was shaking almost uncontrollably when I finished, wiping the bile off of my face with a grimace and an unsteady hand.

I looked to my left at the person who had pulled me into the car, but I already had a sinking feeling that I knew who it was. Jasper met my eyes with a modicum of concern on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but his words meant nothing. I concentrated on my breathing, taking deep lungfuls of air to stem the boiling of my blood. With the pump of blood filling my ears, I was beginning to see red, inhaling a scent that was only feeding the frenzy. My entire body screamed to jump into action, to transform, the ultimate fight-or-flight response. I was only vaguely aware of the way Jasper seemed to stiffen, his face screwed into an expression of deep concentration before the waves of an almost drug-like calm penetrated the thick of the frenzy. Slowly, the angry storm subsided, tension rolling out of me like sinking into a hot, scented bath.

I could feel my eyelids drawing themselves to a close, transformed into lead-weighted curtains. Within minutes, I was asleep.

* * *

Thanks to Ra'iira The Fiend (hope I got that right!) for sending me messages and just in general motivating me to FINALLY put this up here. It's really rough, and I wasn't too confident with how it turned out, plus I was having plotting issues, so... (I know, that's not really an excuse). Ah, well. At least I updated before next year (but only barely).


	7. Ask No Questions

So your nice reviews got me all fired up to write some more, and I'm much happier with the turnout of this chapter. Hopefully it answers some questions while finally derailing the original Twilight's plot.

**DISCLAIMER: **If I owned Twilight, it totally _would _have been like a fantasy version of Men In Black (which, coincidentally, is also not owned by me).

* * *

**6. Ask No Questions**

I woke up slowly, white light hitting my eyes too intensely and causing my eyelashes to flutter under the assault. I felt like I'd just gone to bed sick. That light-headed feeling that usually accompanied nasal congestion had my head lurching like the prow of a ship in stormy waters. I groaned, pitching forward and clamping my hands to my head when it decided to do the same.

_Damn head colds_, I thought blearily while my eyes took an agonizingly long time to adjust to the light. When they did, however, I scrambled back to the headboard of the bed I was sitting on in terror. The walls were stark white. The floor was a black marble color. There was a white (hopefully faux) fur rug beneath the contemporary-style bed I was sitting on. And all of it was completely unfamiliar.

I panicked for a scant few seconds, then took deep breaths to calm myself down, some niggling sense in my head telling me that if I were to get all riled up, _it_ would happen again. Then I struggled to remember just what _it _was...and the events of yesterday came crashing over me like a physical blow. The hands against my head pressed tighter against the stream of memories flooding into my brain... I was a werewolf—_shapeshifter, _was what Jacob had said. Jasper and someone else...maybe Alice, had attacked the large wolf, Sam. I blinked hard. I was still having a hard time believing that all of this could have happened, but Sam's transformation, however impossible it should have been, proved it. Jasper had taken me to a car and then I passed out, somehow. Once again, a brilliant case of feeling drugged had surfaced around that guy, and my sneaking suspicions about the Cullens had been confirmed not to just be a case of sweaty-palms nervousness.

Okay, so I had been kidnapped by a couple of vampires. In the daylight, which meant that they were somehow impervious to the sun, unless it was because we had been under the thick shade of the trees...? I shook my head to clear my stray thoughts, only feeling slightly nauseous at what it added to the dizziness. Not important. I had to figure out where I was, and how to get out of here. I could think about vampire weaknesses later.

But then a thought stopped me from actually enacting this escape plan. What would I do after getting away? Where could I go? I had no idea who to trust in this mess. Surely I could count on Jacob, but Sam and what he'd said before he transformed...I don't know, but it set off more of those tingling alarm bells. Why would he imply that Jacob was putting "pack safety" before my own by telling me that I was going to die? And why had he stopped him from saying what Jacob was obviously upset about keeping silent?

I was still so confused. There were no obvious signs of who to trust in all this mess, which only meant that, once again, I'd have to stick it out by myself. Struck with the discovery of werewolves (_shapeshifters_) and vampires, another thought occurred to me.

Oh dear God, were _all_ mythical creatures real? Did being a shapeshifter mean a sudden plunge into their secret society? I didn't want to go to a big city and abruptly be "graced" with the ability to see all kinds of weird creatures. What if it was like the fantasy version of the Men in Black? I groaned into my hands. I just wanted to go back to the way things were. I didn't want to be at Forks. I didn't want to know that my Dad wasn't my real father. I wanted to go back home. No, that wasn't right. With Dad's impending marriage, there was no home for me, not anymore, and I would still be this inhuman..._thing._ I wanted a different life. One where Mom had never cheated on Dad...

My thoughts were broken with the soft sound of footsteps. I listened intently, silently marveling that I could hear that far; they sounded like they were from some distance beyond the door, but advancing quickly. Increased senses? At least there were somebenefits to be had from all this.

I felt my nose twitch as the person entered the room. Just a crack in the door, and I was nearly bowled over by the powerful scent that assaulted me. It was like standing right next to a person who had a penchant for bathing in their particular brand of aftershave: potent, nostril-burning, and almost nauseating. I gagged before I could help it, and I heard a slight chuckle at my involuntary response.

"Trust me, you don't smell all that wonderful, either." He was giving me a lopsided smile, but his amethyst eyes were tense, guarded.

"Jasper?" I croaked weakly, no doubt looking pathetic crouched on the bed with the greenish tinge of nausea. But why did I care what I looked like, anyway? He was a vampire for Christ's sake! I internally yelled that thought to myself until it finally sank in.

Drawing myself up, I attempted to look as hostile as possible. Maybe I should have snarled, too, for extra effect, because he only laughed again.

"Come on, now, Leah. You can't be mad at me," he said lightly, still smiling. Jasper leaned almost casually against the far wall, making a show of how obviously comfortable he was with all this despite having just kidnapped me.

"The hell I'm not!" I growled. _Good, Leah. Try not to show how perplexed you are. Don't let him know that his nonchalance was actually working._

Jasper frowned slightly, a small crease appearing on his forehead. Was he confused? Hurt? Taken by surprise? God, it was almost impossible to read this man!

"I want to know what the hell is going on! Why did you kidnap me? Why are you keeping me here?"

Jasper's expression smoothed, then, into something equally unfathomable. "I'm not keeping you here. You can leave anytime you'd like. You could even fight me for it—I guarantee you that I will just sit back and take it. No doubt you're very confused, even frustrated."

I gaped at him. _Fight him_? He thought I was going to _fight _him? And he wasn't even the least bit afraid of the outcome?

"You're acting like you know that I can't hurt you," I muttered, not entirely expecting him to hear me. But that just meant that I'd momentarily forgotten that I was talking to a vampire. If I had heightened senses, then there was no doubt that he had some hidden tricks up his sleeves, too.

He gave me a patronizing little smile that made me want to smack him just for the sake of proving him wrong. I swallowed, hoping the action would quell the powerful urge to do so.

It didn't help matters that him just being in the room was doing strange things to my vastly improved body. I felt like I was walking a tightrope, and that any wrong move on either of our parts would lead to me falling off, and acting out the instinct that told me to lunge over the bed and rip his throat out. Natural enemy, indeed. Now I knew at least why he'd made me feel so sickened back when we first met. It must have been the developing instincts acting up around his vampire aura, or whatever it was. Only now, that sense screaming at me to kill him was much more compelling.

Jasper must have sensed the tension in the room, because he shifted a little guiltily.

"Oh, don't do that," I moaned, quickly clamping a hand on my oversensitive nose. "It makes the smell stronger. Just-just stay still, will you?" Even from over here, I could see his pupils dilating, like a predatory cat's. He was reacting to his own enemy instinct, it seemed.

Ignoring my plea completely, Jasper instead stepped closer, albeit hesitantly. As he came nearer, his eyes narrowed. He stopped a few feet away with an intense look of concentration on his face, while I focused all my energies on trying not to succumb to the wracking force on my body that I knew had to be transformation.

After a few seconds of silent struggling, he let out a breathless curse, sighing in what I guessed to be consternation. Though at what, I had no idea.

"It's not working," Jasper said apparently to himself, since I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. The statement seemed to be news to him, though because the surprised expression on his face was probably the strongest emotion I'd ever seen from him since the shock of first meeting me.

Then his eyes flickered to my own almost apologetically. "I need to get closer, I'm sorry, but I have to do this to prevent you from trying to tear me apart."

"Go...ahead," I managed to gasp between clenched teeth. I had to stop breathing through my nose because his scent was becoming so overwhelming, leaving a trail of fire in my nostrils like I'd just snorted glass. I half expected to feel the trickle of warm blood staining my fingers, but it was more nerve pain than anything else. Which was good, considering the present blood-thirsty company.

Cautiously, with movements that were at once fluid and controlled, Jasper managed to bring himself only slightly more than a foot away from me. At that point I was so berserk with unstoppable rage that I couldn't feel my hands for how tightly they gripped the edge of the bed. He cast me one cursory glance before bringing his arm up so swiftly that I registered the action after it happened. I felt two of his fingers brush the skin on my forehead in a deliberately light touch that still couldn't conceal how bloodless, how unbelievably cold his own skin was to mine. As if he had been thinking along the same line of thoughts, I saw him wince in surprise at the contact, perhaps in reaction to the comparative furnace of my skin. It irritated me to feel that despite the murderous impulse gripping my body, I still couldn't help but notice this man's attractiveness, now that he was so close.

I tried to banish the thoughts as they appeared, but didn't miss the brief upturn of his lips before he closed his eyes and began to concentrate once more. I waited in agony and slowly...it dissipated. Again, there was that feeling, a light floating sensation with the slight edge of outside influence, that caused everything else I had been feeling to just...melt away. I sighed at the sensation; it was like feeling a mental massage. After a few moments of blissful silence, I realized that I had at some point closed my eyes, and reluctantly opened them.

I forgot that Jasper had been that close. Crouching to meet my eye-level, he was staring at me with another small frown, an understated kind of awe causing his lips to be parted very slightly and his eyes to be wider than usual. I felt myself heat up under his gaze. This drew my attention to the fact that his fingers were still connected to my forehead, no longer surprisingly icy, but a soothing cool. It was as if these feelings of peace were emanating from those fingers. My eyes darted to his, unsure but not entirely uncomfortable. Something about his expression had changed; his eyes looked a bit...hooded, though by no means did he look sleepy.

_Oh, he wears contacts, _was all I could think in this situation, paralyzed while peering straight into his vibrant eyes and detecting the slight edge around the outside of the iris. For a single, breathless moment it seemed that the atmosphere had been strung with live wires before Jasper slowly stood and removed his hand just as I began to hear further, much more sprightly steps down the hall.

I blinked and Alice entered. I didn't even bother to hide my flummoxed expression from the cute girl, still confused beyond belief at what had just happened. He could change the air of any exchange with a simple glance, and with a touch, bring me from homicidal to practically purring like a kitten.

_And then brush off the entire thing like it was no big deal, apparently, _I thought, watching him intently while he propped himself up on the wall closest to the bed with the same air of detachment as he had entering the room. The very idea of him having any sort of sway over me...well, it made me anxious. Could he so easily manipulate the very feelings of one person towards another? Could he also inspire trust? What about love, lust? The feeling of cold dread took a while to creep up on me in my current state of haziness, but when it did, I suddenly felt like I had been very swiftly kicked in the gut.

I couldn't trust any of my feelings around this guy. He made me unable to trust myself. Anything that came out of his mouth would have to be taken under serious consideration after his influence disappeared before I could make any decisions. But how could I be sure whether he was manipulating me or not?

"Leah," chirped Alice with a primness that seemed incredibly forced. "I just wanted to let you know that I've just gotten a vision—a pea-soup-hazy kinda one, sure—but it had to do with what's up for us down the road."

I stared at her for an idiotically long amount of time, not able to handle another blow to my lack of knowledge concerning this whole affair. She was wearing an outfit that looked princess-themed: tiny black shorts, lace-top knee-high socks, and a black lace-sleeved shirt with a silk, gunmetal gray, cravat-looking neckline. I had a random thought about the practicality of such clothing when she had been running around at light speed earlier in the forest, but it seemed like she hadn't even gotten a scratch on the expensive-looking outfit.

"Alice, I think we should start at the beginning before Leah tries to kill me again," Jasper said lightly, but I could sense that whatever awkwardness had transpired had not yet dissipated because he still refused to meet my eyes. Alice clapped her hands together with an exaggerated "a-ha!" expression, her dark eyes large in her pale, pointed face.

"Any questions before I launch into the most confusing story you've ever heard?" Alice asked with an almost excited expression on her face.

_Better off not expecting any serious empathy from her, _I thought with a twist of a smile on my face. She was equal parts exasperating and adorable. I had the feeling that most of that cuteness came from her over-the-top mannerisms. Had it been Lauren or any other suitably serious people standing in front of me saying the same thing, I would have been itching to deck them. But Alice's words only seemed to soothe some of the inner turmoil I was experiencing, acting as if these bizarre occurrences were no different from everyday life. Well, _her _everyday life.

I had a lot of questions. Who could I trust? What was really going on? Those were at top priority, but just so happened to be questions that I could only trust myself to answer. So I started asking for the details that would help me piece together the bigger picture on my own.

"That night at Port Angeles with the fire," I said quickly, my mind already anticipating the answer I'd get to the biggest piece of the puzzle. "What were you doing there, Jasper?"

His gaze flickered to me without a single movement from the rest of his body, assessing me with a scrutiny I was unused to. Before I became unbearably self-conscious, however, he sighed in a show of relenting.

"The entire night was an accident," Jasper began, a hint of bitterness coloring his usually smooth voice. "It was me, Edward, Alice—" I glanced at Alice, and she nodded, confirming the story. "and Carlisle. You've heard, I hope, of the treaty that we are bound to follow?"

I recalled Jacob bringing up some kind of "peace treaty" regarding the vampire clan, but I decided that I would have liked to hear the details from the horse's mouth. Any inconsistencies between the two stories would beg for further understanding, but if I wanted the full story, I needed more than just one version. So I shook my head.

"It's the deal we made to the puppies," Alice clarified, putting a hand on her hip. "Don't rough up any of the Forks people and keep all other kindsa vamps out, basically."

"'Puppies...?'" I felt my eyebrows raise. Jasper rolled his eyes at Alice. "She means the shapeshifters. Your kind."

"Although technically you'd be more of a _bitch _than a puppy," Alice said, thoughtfully tapping her chin with a blue-painted fingernail. I laughed while Jasper shook his head in exasperation.

"Why can't they just do that themselves? I mean, there's a whole pack, right? Jacob and Sam and..."

"Quil, Embry, Jared, Brady, Collin, Seth, and around six or seven others. Fifteen pack members in all, give or take," Jasper fired off easily. I blinked, momentarily stunned.

"Wow. Fifteen other werewolves? How did that particular secret stay one for long?"

"Shapeshifters," he corrected me. Smart ass. "And it's because humans have a tendency not to believe until it can be proven beyond a doubt, rather than automatically believe in anything until proven otherwise." He was _such_ a smart ass.

"Whatever. What's the difference, anyway?" I grumbled sullenly, not being one to actually enjoy being corrected.

"Wolves are the guys who actually got the disease, and turn all scary-beast-y, like, every month on the full moon. Also, their bites are shit. Transmits their nasty infection like some kinda super AIDS," Alice explained.

"They needed our cooperation in the treaty because of the war," Jasper continued, obviously choosing to utterly ignore anything that came out of Alice's mouth. Probably because she'd just likened a werewolf's bite to AIDS, but to be fair, a strain of "super AIDS" sounded far less idiotic than a serious discussion about the difference between werewolves and shapeshifters.

"Or rather, the lack of a war." Oh, right. Jasper was still talking.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look around. What do you notice about this place?"

"It seems pretty quiet for a place that supposedly has an invisible fantasy war going on," I said honestly.

"Right, that's because in this war, Forks just happens to be one of the only neutral zones in the world. And that's saying something, considering that there is both a vampire _and _a shapeshifter clan occupying the same territory. But Forks is neutral only because of the efforts of both of us: if either our clan or the pack wanted war, you can bet your ass that Forks would be a very different place. The treaty is an extension meant to preserve that neutrality.

"Instead of regularly engaging in the potential altercations that arise if an outside vampire clan were to meet the pack, the pack sends us, a couple of friendly faces, to deter the vampires and send them to a vampire-claimed area. Same goes if a bunch of shapeshifters were to show up. But the chance of a pack appearing is always slimmer than the chance of a clan coming to town, simply because most packs operate out of territorial instincts. Once they find a place to protect, they rarely leave it. And they can afford to stay, too. The signs of being a shapeshifter are always less protracted than the signs of our kind..." Jasper trailed off, looking wistful.

"So what does Port Angeles have to do with the treaty?" I asked, appreciative of the explanations but still eager for the story behind that puzzling incidence.

"When you saw me in Port Angeles, I was desperately trying to keep you away from the book store," Jasper said, shifting slightly and looking uncomfortable.

"Why?" was all I could say. _To cover something up, or...to save my life?_

"At that night, all four of us were acting on Alice's information that a clan had entered the Port Angeles area and was on their way up to Forks. This clan was especially...brutal in their feeding methods, and instead of deciding to wait for them to leave a trail of corpses all the way to Forks, we decided that it would be most beneficial just to head them off before they could start. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned."

"What do you mean? How could Alice have possibly gained that kind of information? Is there like a vampire version of Facebook or something? Do you guys keep tabs on each other?" A vampire Facebook. What a bizarre concept.

"Hell, no, there's no vampire Facebook!" Jasper said with a disbelieving laugh. "Otherwise you'd have some lunatics joining, obviously convinced that _they're _vampires too, and it would all become very confusing."

"I can see the future," Alice informed me very matter-of-factly. Of course, her for-once serious tone had me skeptical almost immediately. To my surprise, though, instead of waving her statement off as a joke, Jasper nodded.

"Once turned, some people find certain aspects of their human abilities...magnified," he said. "Someone who excels at lying as a human may find that as a vampire, they now have the ability of a built-in lie detector. Or Alice, here, who was always marginally clairvoyant as a human—bad feelings, maybe flashes of visions in dreams or the like—now has the ability to access certain parts of the future almost constantly."

"That sounds useful," I replied, pondering what possible power _I _might have had, were I to have become a bloodsucker. Maybe the ability to know exactly what to say to piss people off? Or the ability to sense stupid comments before they came out of my mouth?

"Somewhat," Alice agreed. "But it's really kinda more detail-oriented, y'know? Like, I'll wanna see what the weather is like tomorrow, but only get a flash of someone wearing a tanktop. It needs a lot of guesswork to really be useful."

I also wondered what _Jasper's _power might have been, but I already had more than just a sneaking suspicion that I had already experienced it first-hand. He must have known that I'd guessed by my silence on the subject, because suddenly Jasper once more refused to look me in the eye. Did he know that the knowledge of his manipulative ability would have affected my trust? I didn't think Jasper was stupid. In fact, all evidence pointed to his intelligence. He had to know. I wanted to know if he planned to breach that topic with me soon, or if my trust in him didn't really matter.

"So what did you see that night in Port Angeles?" I changed the subject, lest the awkward air sitting in the room turn any worse. Alice seemed totally oblivious to whatever weirdness was transpiring between me and Jasper, though, and narrated with an excitement that told me how much she enjoyed being a source of information. It probably made her feel useful, despite her claim to the contrary.

"I saw a lot of death. Dead bodies, everywhere. First in the boondocks, then in someplace that looked like an alley in a big city, then a ton in that city's sewers. And the corner of the bookstore, which was how I knew it was Port Angeles. Then I had a flash of what looked like a blood trail leading to the north...live captives, either being turned or to be preserved as 'snacks.' And the direction would have led the vampires straight to Forks, where they probably would have stopped for some more grub," Alice recounted with an air of drama. Girl really loved storytelling, that was for sure.

"And so you guys all went down there to tell 'em off? How did that lead to the fire?"

"With all of the corpses laying around, drained of blood, two puncture wounds in the jugular and an unidentifiable venomous compound lacing both the wounds and the interior arteries... We aren't supposed to expose our kind to the humans. In fact, there is an entire vampiric order dedicated to the protection of the secret. The evidence, no matter how much of it would have been refuted with 'alternate explanations,' had to be destroyed.

"Originally, we were going to strike in the dead of night, when the city would be least suspecting, and the shadows dark enough to cover any illicit activities, but then Alice revealed that parts of her vision indicated that the clan wouldn't be staying in Port Angeles for very long. So we went directly to their presumed lair: the sewers. Or, at least, Edward, Carlisle, and Alice did. We had gotten to the city just as I spied you and your friends entering the book shop, which was right on top of the sewers. I still had no idea what you were: your scent was a mystery, neither shapeshifter nor human, and I didn't know whether you would jeopardize the whole thing on behalf of the war effort. The rest of us were panicked, too, especially Alice. Her visions somehow don't seem to account for the activities of other supernatural beings, or rather, any kind of species that she herself has not had the experience of living as. Since I was established as having the most interaction with you out of all of us, it was decided that I run interference while the others took care of the problem," Jasper confessed. Something about his words stuck out at me, though...I decided to pursue that line of thought after I discovered the exact cause of the fire.

"But there was a fire," I reiterated. "You guys burned down that book store."

"We didn't _mean_ to," protested Alice. "One of the best ways to kill a vampire is to fry 'em, and once we got down to the toilet hole those other guys had been shackin' up in, we found everything but the actual vampires. Actually, some of those assholes were so damn _sloppy _about it that half of the dudes they'd sucked up still had some blood in 'em, which woulda caused an army of half-dead vampires to start running around town. And the first thing a newborn, half-dead vampire does? Drink the blood of the innocent, of course! Lots and _lots _of blood. There would a been a big-time killing spree going down, which coulda spread all the way to Forks." She snapped her fingers.

"So! We rained down a fiery hellstorm on those suckers, which kinda _maybe _had the little side effect of burning down the whole book store. But don't worry! Carly and Eddie spent the rest of the night carting people outta there before they ended up burnt to a crisp, too. And I think Carly's already made the transfer to the owner's donation box that would cover all the damages and _then _some. Damn bleeding heart," but she looked anything from condemning the man who I assumed was Dr. Carlisle Cullen (couldn't be too sure, though. Maybe they had another chick vampire named Carly?). Her large eyes shone with an almost sparking admiration for the man. Jasper shared a similar fond expression crossed with amusement.

Clearly the Cullen clan all looked up to their fearless leader, but I had yet to meet him in person.

"Earlier..." I began, trying to work out the detail in Jasper's speech that had bothered me even as I spoke. "You said something about my scent, about it not being quite human, nor shapeshifter?" At Jasper's seemingly blank look, I quickly tacked on: "What was all that about?" and effectively ruined the nice little atmosphere that bringing up Carlisle had brought.

Jasper looked even more hesitant to answer this particular question, and though I had no idea why, I felt a similar anxiousness tighten my heart, probably in response to how quickly the air in that room turned so tense. Even Alice looked a little guarded.

"Leah, this is where you might want to brace yourself for some bad news," Jasper began seriously, his unsettling eyes focused intently on my own. Feeling antsy with nervousness, I couldn't stop the sarcastic crack that came out of my mouth at that.

"Oh, yeah, Jasper, I think that just might ruin what an utterly _fantastic _week this has been. I mean, I don't think I'm prepared right after coming down from the high from all of this wonderfully _good_ news. But I suppose that every silver lining has a goddamn cloud attached to it, right?"

The side of his full mouth twitched into a smile brought on in such a serious mood. Alice grinned briefly, only to have it fall flat. Okay, ouch. That kind of melodramatic sarcasm at least earned a chuckle. I felt the dig in the pit of my stomach that reminded me of Jacob's earlier warning: _"You're going to die..." _Did this "bad news" have anything to do with that?

"Your scent was one of the key triggers to why both Sam's pack and our clan could recognize that you weren't human, but it was also the reason why both we and Jacob neglected to tell you of the fact until after your first transformation," Jasper began cryptically, his voice ominous and low. "Now why is that, do you think?"

I frowned, thinking hard. Jasper didn't wait for me to reply.

"The answer is, of course, that nobody could be sure that you were actually a shapeshifter or something...different. Your scent was so unique to both vampire and shapeshifter because neither of us have encountered someone like you before." He wasn't leaning anymore; he looked almost agitated, his hand gesticulating wildly with his words.

"Meaning...?" I breathed, heart stopped in both anticipation and terror. Something told me that I didn't want to know the answer to this question...

"A woman, Leah. You're one of the first female shapeshifters in, well, centuries, I suppose. Female shapeshifters are so much rarer, so much more valuable than female vampires or werewolves. There is a series of genetic predispositions that has to happen in order to produce one male shapeshifter, and this is from a line of literally hundreds of generations of the shapeshifting ability being passed down, from father to son. It generally skips a generation, with one generation having dormant abilities and maybe some slight manifestations of this—better-than average smell, maybe, or hearing. But for all the hundreds of male shapeshifters, there is literally only a one out of a thousand chance of a female shapeshifter being produced with _dormant _powers. An even smaller chance for one with the actual ability to fully shapeshift," Jasper was now staring at something intangible on the wall, a frown indicating his disturbance with the information, though I couldn't for the life of me see why.

"Lucky me," I commented, confused.

"No," said Alice. "_Un_lucky you!" I blinked owlishly at her. She put both hands on her hips, a fierce expression on her elfin features.

"You don't get it, do ya?" she yelled in frustration. Whereas Jasper seemed to be quietly anguished, Alice's reactions were very exaggerated, each movement of hers displaying the magnitude of her emotion like some kind of measurement. Flailing hands-on-hips, tensed shoulders, deep frown...Alice was very angry, but not at me.

"This is a _war_, dogs against bats! And if the bloodsuckers have the advantage in lightning-fast creation, think about how much they'll risk for the same kinda deal! An army needs its soldiers, where do ya think your kind's gonna get theirs?"

The realization hit me like ice water, and I wondered stupidly why I hadn't figured it out before. The fact that these two races were at _war _still hadn't fully been taken in until at that very moment. I thought of all of the tactics generally used to produce armies: recruitment from jails, forced conscription, child soldiers... Now what if the army could only be produced by selective breeding? Of course they'd turn the rare female specimen into some kind of perverted brood mother, an ant-queen for the shapeshifters, whose only job would be to mass-produce as many little shapeshifting babies as was physically possible... I felt literally sick to my stomach at the prospect, the mental images that were now assaulting my mind in the wake of the dead-silence that Alice's little speech had produced.

And then I remembered Sam's dangerous words to Jacob in that clearing. And everything clicked.

"Sam...joining the pack would've..." But I couldn't say it. I couldn't put to words the potential horrors that would have faced me should I have so blindly walked into that trap. Jacob had tried to warn me, though the word he had used was "die," I would have expected something along "a fate worse than death" to be used as the descriptor to that kind of forced slavery, dedicated to a cause I didn't even understand nor support.

Jasper confirmed my conclusion with the slight nod of his head and the tug of disgust at his mouth.

"But how did you know? How did you save me?" I was staring at the white bedspread in front of me, and how white my fingers were turning because of how tightly I was clutching the fabric. My voice was lower than a whisper, because it suddenly hurt to talk. I fought the strong wave of tears that flooded behind my eyes by biting my lip, hard. It felt like a betrayal, even though none of those people had ever promised me any kind of loyalty in the first place.

"Jacob visited Carlisle in the hospital the night you transformed," Jasper said, and I noticed how gentle his voice had become, either because he saw my tears or sensed the emotion. It was soft and low, almost like a caress. I closed my eyes.

"It was the only way for him to contact us without smelling strongly of our scent."

Despite my efforts, I felt a small trickle snake down my face, leaving the wet skin behind sensitive to the cold.

"What...should I do?" I asked, hating how broken I sounded. Why should I have been asking them, _vampires, _for help?

_They're the only people who have helped me so far, _I found myself thinking. _Even if they haven't been completely honest so far, at least they've been more honest than everyone else..._

"We can protect you," Jasper asserted, though his voice remained whisper-soft and enticing enough to make my heart wrench. "Come with us."

Even if it meant my eventual downfall, I found myself nodding.

* * *

O-kay! Poll time! So, obviously, Leah's got some time on the road ahead of her. Besides Jasper (who's gonna be a fixture in this story *points to pairing*), which Cullens should come along for the ride? I've got a poll set up in my profile that you guys can answer, but it doesn't have Carlisle or Esme as choices simply because I felt like the adults kinda had some stable thing to keep up at home and their disappearance would be a lot more suspect than Edward, Emmett, Jasper, Alice, or Rosalie's absence. Buuuuut, if you wanna see Carlisle or Esme try to squeeze into a muscle car with Jasper and Leah and a third member, feel free to drop a comment telling me to do so (I'll consider it a "vote") and I'll just write around any potential plot-holes.


	8. A Damn Miracle

**A.N. **Holy, shit, guys, it's been so LONG! I'm truly sorry about that, but I was so caught up in my schoolwork-y'see, we had this final-exam type project, then actual final exams (about twenty of them) then tons of tearful goodbyes and assorted parties and such I was just. So. Busy. But now I've graduated high school (go me!) and in the time off I've gravitated back to what I love to do: write! So I've been ironing out the kinks in this story's plot and getting back on the saddle, so to speak (not that you guys care about the deets, but...). I've still got a lot to do this summer, so I can't promise regularity, but here's an update for you and just know that I'm already working on chapter eight and that I love Jasper/Leah too much to ever truly abandon this story (plus, it's like the most I've ever written for anything, ever). So...without further ado (and you guys have been going through nearly six months of goddamn "ado"): Overcast, chapter seven!

**Disclaimer: **As always, this stuff belongs to SMeyer...no matter how much I enjoy writing Emmett!

* * *

**7. A Damn Miracle**

I sniffled a little pathetically, my voice coming out much more watery than I intended. "Where?"

"Somewhere. I don't know. _Anywhere. _Anywhere you can be protected, away from either of our kind," Jasper said emphatically, pulling a hand through his hair.

"How do I know that I can...trust you guys?" I whispered. It was a stupid thing to say, really. If they were the bad guys, it's not like they'd _tell _me. Though I admit that I wasn't exactly thinking at that moment.

"We coulda easily just hauled your butt to vamp headquarters while you were out, with or without your say-so," Alice pointed out, crossing her arms. I nodded slowly but thought fast. It made a lot of sense. All six Cullens surely would have been able to overpower me, wolf-form or not. They'd already had the opportunity and decided not to take it. And why would the enemy humor their captive with all of the explanations that I had demanded? It would only have been a waste of time.

"So what now?" I asked, trying to banish my tears by inconspicuously wiping my eyes with the corner of the sheet that I held in my hand. Jasper tracked the movement with his eyes, even as he spoke: "You came in here because of a vision?" It took me a second to figure out that he was talking to Alice.

"Yeah," Alice nodded. "About us. About Leah, too, I think...but I can't be sure."

"What'd you see?" I demanded, eager to know how the whole "visions" thing worked.

"Well, that's another thing about you puppies. My powers don't work on you," she sniffed, folding her arms over her thin chest.

"What I _did_ see, though, was Rosalie's roadster parked outside some kind of fifties diner..."

Jasper's gaze snapped to Alice with a frown. "No."

"Why not?"

"_No, _Alice. We've already discussed this, and we decided. That's final. Nothing you can do or say will change that."

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked, eyes darting between Jasper and Alice with confusion.

Jasper sighed. "Alice is trying to convince me to let her and Rosalie take you."

"Take me? Take me _where? _I don't even know where I'm going, and you guys have already _decided _this—"

"The only way to keep you safe would be to leave this life behind entirely. Destroy your name, any relationships...cover up the fact that you ever existed. And to do this would involve faking your death," Jasper said in a tone devoid of emotion. He gave me a warning look at the aghast expression I was making and continued: "We have a lot of experience being hunted, Leah, being _tracked. _And believe me when I say that you are literally going to have to wipe yourself off the face of the Earth for a while. Maybe even a few years. Both sides will be looking for you, though it's a miracle nobody from the outside knows right now. When you go into hiding, you're going to need a few people who are experts at this sort of thing. _Alice," _he glanced at her pointedly, "isn't. And neither is Rosalie."

"But Alice just said that she saw—" I began in earnest protest. Why fight the future if it was what was going to be what came to pass? Whether Jasper agreed or not, if Alice saw it, it would happen, right?

"Sometimes Alice lies," Jasper cut me off brusquely. Alice gave a disbelieving yelp, looking murderous.

"Excuse _you_, Jaspie, but what gives you the right—"

"It's Leah's future. I'm not about to risk that so you can have what you think is a fun little girl's night out. This is _her life. _It's not a game," he said emphatically. I frowned.

"Don't you think you're being a little condescending? What if she's right?"

"You don't understand," he muttered. Alice clenched a fist with a venomous glare at Jasper, and for a second I thought she was going to hit him, but instead, she spun on her heel and left the room, making sure to slam to door after her.

I cringed at the harsh sound. For a long moment the only sound in the room was the echo that reverberated in the aftermath. Jasper stared unblinkingly at the white fur rug, jaw clenched. And then he let out a large, drawn-out sigh.

"What is it between you and Alice, anyway?" I blurted out unthinkingly, my undying curiosity getting the better of me once again. Jasper raised an eyebrow at me and I immediately felt myself flush. Stupid. I was so _stupid. _I didn't have any right to pry.

Just when I thought Jasper was going to level an icy stare on me and tell me to drop it, he surprised me by doing the exact opposite of what I expected. He leaned back on the wall and looked at me thoughtfully.

"What makes you ask that?"

"Um, well there just seems to be a lot of...tension between you two, I dunno. Like she just knows how to press all of your buttons and you let her get away with it?" I trailed off, thinking immediately to how she'd been pestering him when I'd first met her, in the lunchroom.

He let out a small chuckle of concession. "She knows how to push _everyone's _buttons. I'm surprised she didn't get the power of annoyance when she was turned."

"She does seem kinda immature," I agreed. "But it's in a good way. I like Alice. She's just, well, Alice-ish," I said, rather lamely.

"Your vampire power would have been the ability to express yourself, no doubt," Jasper said sarcastically, a slight twist to his mouth to show me that he wasn't being intentionally cruel. As if I was that easily offended. I giggled, a little embarrassed that I had previously thought that myself. Then his half-smile faded, his eyes becoming lost, somewhat troubled.

"Or perhaps the power of perception..."

"What are you talking about? I'm dense as a brick wall," I contended playfully. Well, it was true. My observation skills rivaled that of a sponge's.

Jasper shook his head. "Au contraire, darling—" My heart did a funny little wiggle at that word, the way he said it in his low, honeyed drawl. "—but you're actually right. There is something between me and Alice. _Was, _at least. We came to the Cullens as a pair. By the time we'd settled in Forks the first time, Alice had found someone else."

"You don't sound too bitter about it," I pointed out. It was true: he spoke of whatever past he shared with Alice lightly, as if he were commenting on something so mundane as the weather. Of course, I had no idea when they'd first settled in Forks. It could have been anywhere from a decade to fifty years since the end of that relationship, for all I knew.

Jasper, however looked a little surprised at the comment. "I don't? Hm...well, that wasn't how it used to be," he said musingly. "I wonder when that happened?"

The force of his violet eyes hit me, a slight crinkle and a dimple I'd never noticed before causing my face to heat up even more and my mind to desperately clutch onto a different topic of conversation.

"So if you don't believe Alice, what'll you do? I mean, what'll happen to me?"

"Your life's been turned upside down. And now we have to eradicate any trace of its existence." He stood up a little straighter, his pose more authoritative. He'd already formulated this plan.

"Fake my death, yeah, you mentioned it," I said impatiently.

"Carlisle has a body already prepared in the morgue."

"What? Already?" My mind was suddenly consumed with the reality of the situation. My death, faked. A new life, probably one where I'd never see my parents again, never own a stable home...and all because I possessed a functioning uterus. What would Mom say when they presented her with a mangled corpse and told her it was her daughter? How would she feel? I tried to imagine any sort of response contorting her face, but I quickly realized that nothing I had ever gone through matched the gravity of this.

"Yes. The body of one of the victims of the vampire clan we found outside of the sewer only just hours ago. You've been missing for roughly two hours, so it wouldn't be until later today or tomorrow that we would plant the evidence."

I grimaced. "And, what, I happened to die with two little puncture wounds in my neck? Blood drained from my body?"

Jasper laughed, but it was a dark sound completely without humor of any kind. "You clearly have no idea how we feed. It's not as clean as you think. The body is virtually unidentifiable. In fact, I think there's only the spinal cord and some flesh on the thigh to look at."

I felt a sickening lurch in the put of my stomach, my face drained of blood. "You...eat people?"

He gave me a sideways look that was part concern, part something else. "No. But the rate at which newborn vampires or those completely careless rip through bodies makes the action seem less like drinking blood and more like butchering people."

The mental image that accompanied his words only furthered that acute sense of nausea, and I noticed the way he deftly seemed to dodge the _other _interpretation of my question. Jasper was, in fact, a vampire. What did _he_ eat?

My inner horror went unsaid. Jasper seemed to mentally deliberate with himself for a minute before turning away from me.

"Come on, the sedation effects should have worn off by now. We have to leave within the hour. It's a miracle that the pack hasn't broken the treaty by now and demanded your return."

**. . . **

"It's a damn miracle we don't have your little wolf clan up our asses right about now," repeated Emmett with a growl, ducking his head back to glance over his shoulder as his foot slammed on the accelerator, the car engine shuddering obediently as it reached dangerous speeds. My rolling stomach dropped further as I gripped the edge of the car seat tighter, biting my lip as I fought the urge to shut my eyes. I was already terrified. I didn't need to be in a car going nearly a hundred miles an hour with a questionable driver at the helm.

"If we're not being followed," I began through clenched teeth, "then why are you driving like a drunk?" He hit a turn in the road with a sharp swerve, sending my guts sliding along with the wheels of the car.

"Drunk drivers drive _badly_," Emmett said with a playful grin in my direction. I glanced at his face and felt like hurling, my eyes quickly returning to the window in an effort to quell the nausea.

The trees flanking the road were a blur of charcoal and green, only serving to remind me of the ungodly speed we were traveling at, though not without good reason. We weren't being followed as far as we could tell, which, for both Emmett and I, only included the road behind us. There was no telling of what lurked past those trees, an effective barrier from which to follow completely unseen. Even if the speed made me sick, I knew it was necessary to get me out of town as quickly and safely as possible. The faster we went, the harder it would be for someone or some_thing _outside to detect my scent: an absolute give-away in this escape plan of ours.

It was all necessary. Even if it meant faking my death. Even if it meant that I would have to leave without so much as a word to Mom. It would devastate her, to know that her only child had died. I could only imagine the look on her face, and then the heartache she would feel when Dr. Cullen would tell her that he didn't rule out suicide. That it was possible that she could have been the cause after our petty fight. But this was the only way unneeded suspicions wouldn't be cast on my disappearance. Jacob was the last person seen with me, and I would have hated to get him thrown into jail.

Now, if they could somehow implicate _Sam,_ well, I wouldn't have any qualms. My palms curled into fists around the upholstery I was gripping so desperately as I fought the anger that welled up inside of me summoned by the mere thought of him. He was responsible for my life turning upside down. Why we were fleeing Forks as though the Devil raced after us, just out of sight. Jasper said that he hadn't detected any wolves when we left the Cullen house, but who was to say that that remained true now? Hopefully, this plan would work...

"_It's been nearly an hour. The wolves will have gathered by now. We need to get you out of here," Jasper had said, his voice urgent._

"_Emmett, Edward—Alice had a vision, and we have our plan..." _

Edward and Emmett, the mind-reader and the strongest out of the bunch. Carlisle, Alice, Esme and Rosalie were to stay as the denizens of Forks to keep the treaty, though that had been most likely broken the moment Jasper and Alice had stolen me away from Sam and Jacob in the forest. Despite that, they would stay to make sure that the war didn't touch the town's residents.

"_I have too much here to just throw it all away," the blonde doctor explained, a touch of solemn determination coloring both his words and expression. _

"_But why risk it? Why would you jump in this whole...thing, just for me?" I asked._

"_It's not for _you. _It's for all the times we could have stepped in, saved people, and walked away. It's for all the lives I've taken. Saving you brings us one step closer to something redeemable, almost human. The cause is what we fight for. Shape-shifter or vampire, both of them once used to be human." _

_I bit my lip at the surge of gratitude I felt at his words. "Thank you."_

I wondered if I would begin to forget that I was once human. I wondered if any of the Cullens had forgotten. Was Carlisle's devotion to humankind his way of remembering? Did it just...slip away with time?

"_Alice has seen two cars. And that's what we'll do: Edward and I in one, you and Emmett in another," Jasper commanded firmly, quickly bringing me back to the danger at hand. I could tell that while Carlisle seemed to be the leader of this group, Jasper was the strategist. Everyone obeyed his order without question. Even Alice, though she wore an expression of immense displeasure for some unknown reason._

My thoughts circled around musingly as I tried to focus on anything other than the possibility of being torn out of the car by a hulking wolf.

"Do you trust Alice's visions?" I asked finally. Emmett shot me a weird look as he suddenly pulled into another hairpin curve. The car jerked into the curve, I felt my body swing to the right, and I shut my eyes tightly, clutching at the armrests with all my might. Then the wheels leveled out and went smoothly as before, still hurtling at a speed of over eighty miles an hour.

"Are you—" Emmett began to ask, turning his slightly worried eyes to me before I snapped: _"Keep your eyes on the road, Goddammit!_"

He grinned, but complied, staring straight ahead even as he addressed my earlier question.

"What, ten minutes of no talking and now this? Wouldn't you rather be panicking over our potential pursuers?" the brunette joked. I glanced at him, saw the forced quality of his smile, and felt a little guilty. Hulking Emmett with his supposed super-strength was anxious, perhaps even a little afraid, all because he'd decided to help me. I guessed that shape-shifters and vampires had to at least be equally matched for any of the Cullens to be reacting with the same level of grim determination I'd seen in Jasper.

"Well, if Alice's vision was correct, then we'll come out alright, right? I mean, Jasper said that she saw two cars outside the city limits, which means that we make it," I said quickly. Even I could tell that it sounded like I was trying too hard to convince myself. There were a myriad of ways that those visions could fail, I knew _that _much, even if I didn't know the specifics of the murky art of fortune-telling. But maybe hearing the specifics would help me stop doubting and bring me at least a modicum of security. It was better than thinking the same circle of pessimistic thoughts, chasing each other around like a twisted ouroboros.

_It'shopelesswe'regoingtodieit'sallmyfault—_I clamped down on my half-realized fears and bit my lip.

Emmett began to answer my question, which at least momentarily diverted my attention from the whirling world outside and the assorted stabs of fear swirling just as fast inside me.

"What you don't understand about her visions is that there's a bunch of ways that they can be wrong. Just pieces of crap filtering around the radar, static, y'know?" With a glance at my confused look: "Alice can only see the endings of certain things. Like 'if Carlisle goes to work today, he's gonna be hella pissed when he comes home.' Stuff like that. She doesn't see actions in the making, or what leads to it, and sometimes, there's the flukes."

"So it's entirely possible that the vision she had of everyone coming out okay was a fluke?" I asked, trying and failing to ignore the pitch in my guts as Emmett swerved the car into another lane.

"We don't even know if she actually saw _anyone _in that flash," Emmett muttered. "No people. No bodies. So we coulda been gutted and ripped up and burned to pieces behind the cars, 'cause all she saw were the damn things undented."

I'd heard of this particular shortcoming before, but with the gory picture Emmett painted, it suddenly seemed like a very idiotic idea to rely on so much guess work.

"Oh, God," I breathed, my terror melting into my carsickness to create a horrible, devouring hole in my stomach that made it difficult for me to inhale.

"Sorry," mumbled Emmett sheepishly upon seeing my reaction.

"Just—_drive._" The very real threat of death or worse loomed over me. I could imagine, any second now, the massive, shaggy wolves bounding behind us. One swipe at this speed would derail the car, send it into the nearest copse of trees, and—

I shook my head and tried to clear those thoughts. All we had to do was get to Seattle. Jasper and Edward would meet us there, we'd switch drivers, and then pick the next town at random. It was part of a clever little plan that Jasper had apparently been thinking of for a while.

"_Travel completely unpredictably. Pick towns by pointing at a map with your eyes closed. Or choose someplace you've always wanted to go that nobody could guess,_" he'd said. _"It makes tracking someone much, much harder."_

"_Can we go to Disney World?" I joked half-heartedly, already upset with the plan. For how long was this going to go on? I couldn't spend the rest of my life on the run simply because I happened to have a working pair of ovaries. How long would it be before this would become routine? Would I ever be able to settle down? Finish high school, even?_

_Jasper gave me a troubled look, which clued me into the fact that he'd guessed the line of my thoughts. "We'll meet up in Seattle, but..." He trailed off, unable to hold my gaze. "We can go wherever you want to, Leah."_

"_I guess that doesn't include Forks."_

_Jasper sighed. "I know this isn't the most ideal of lives, but it's either running or submitting. You have to trust us, Leah."_

_I swallowed over the lump in my throat. "Yeah..."_

"How much longer, Emmett?" I whined.

"Well, subtracting the entire five minutes it's been since you last asked, it's about, let's see," he paused in a show of mock mental math, "_still _three more hours. Now isn't that funny? I mean, you'd think with so much time gone by—"

"I can't take your horrible driving any more, I'm gonna barf, I _swear to God,_" I complained, effectively shutting down his snark-fest when he took the time to glare at me.

"Cool. Just so you know, if you vomit on me I'm dumping your ass on the shoulder. I don't care _what _Jasper threatens to do to my manhood. We all know Rose'll just—_holy shit!"_

The car was rocked violently, the back wheels curtailing to the left and swinging the car so fast that my head spun, my stomach dropping like a stone. I screamed and Emmett counter-steered reflexively, muttering a panicked string of colorful curses beneath his breath. I whipped my head back at a look at what had derailed us, and there it was. Two large, shaggy wolves, teeth bared and blood rimmed eyes, snarling in fury as they bounded towards our car. The back of the car bore the brunt of a sharp set of claws, a large rip across its painted surface signifying where they'd snapped us.

I swallowed and forced myself to breathe, sitting back upright and closing my eyes tightly to counter the urge to hyperventilate.

"They're here," I gasped. "Two of them. Big ones."

The terrifying thought of crashing at this speed crossed my mind. Emmett's jaw was clenched tightly as he once again cursed vehemently, his foot pressing the accelerator to the floor. I was grateful that the roads were so deserted. I hoped that they would stay that way—imagining an oncoming eighteen-wheeler faced with one of those hulking beasts made my heart beat louder, faster. I whimpered, trying not to let the beast inside of _me _take over, the natural fight-or-flight response to what was happening. The size I'd rapidly become would destroy the car for sure, not to mention how suddenly being ejected at ninety miles an hour would effect Emmett.

"Leah," Emmett called urgently, instantly bringing me out of my panic. "Leah, when I say go, I want you to change." He wasn't looking at me as I gaped at him in horror.

"_What the hell did you just say?"_ I demanded, my mind whirling. "I _can't_, I've never done it before, not on command—what if I wreck the car? What about you? You could die!" I realized belatedly that I was shouting at him. I still struggled to hear myself over the rumble of the car, the pounding coming from heavy paws hitting the road, the dizzying thoughts rushing through my head, and the thunderous sound of my heart.

"Don't worry," he said tightly, though he briefly glanced at me and shot me a shaky smile. "I've got a plan." The car swerved, but this time it was Emmett—_Holy God, why did he do that, did he do it on purpose Why in God's name would you swing into the guardrail you idiot—_

And then a leg shot up and kicked my passenger door so hard it flew off its hinges, fast enough that I barely had time to flatten myself to my seat. Emmett's face was frozen into a look of determination, but he was shouting at me, something like a dull roar—

"Leah, _NOW!"_

I only caught a split-second glimpse of two shades of fur, enough to know that they were still there and approaching fast and damnit, I was still worried about Emmett but he had a plan and I sure as hell trusted his instincts more than I trusted mine so I managed to gather all of the fear and energy pent up into my body and sprung out of the newly-opened side in the car.

It only occurred to me _after _I jumped that Emmett had slammed the car into the guardrail, which happened to be on my side. Which meant that I was now hurtling through about fifty feet of air until I would either hit the ground, so far below, or get speared by a tree on the way down.

I curled myself into a ball and shut my eyes tightly, the brisk air whipping my face and hair with a force that felt like a thousand stinging slaps. The only thing I could comprehend was that I was _falling _probably to my _death_, and Jesus Christ my stomach was a _mess—_was it possible to vomit mid-air because I felt like what little I had in my stomach would be thrown _all over the place _and I'd probably choke on it while falling and _what a stellar way to go, Leah—_

Suddenly, my body was on fire. The wind wasn't enough to cool me down, there was a shiver running down my tightly clenched body, and I was being stabbed in every pore, every nerve ending, with a live wire. I wasn't aware that I was screaming until it turned into something more shrill, more ferocious, more_...animalistic. _

It felt like my skin had rapidly disintegrated, leaving bushy fur in its place. All at once, my body both shrunk and expanded, unnecessary bones being retracted and new, unfamiliar ones popping into existence with a series of sickening-sounding crunches and scrapings. This happened in the space of a few seconds, in less time than it took for me to fall to the ground.

It was the most fucking painful thing I've ever felt in my entire life.

But I managed to grit my teeth—foot-long _fangs—_and get through it, another snarl ripping from me as I hit the ground and immediately let the adrenaline drive it at dizzying speed alongside the road from the thick cover of trees.

_Oh, Emmett, please be okay..._

I was gigantic. And judging from what I saw earlier, still smaller than those two wolves. The brief image of a body torn and bloodied wearing Emmett's face flashed through my mind before I roughly shoved it aside. Whatever happened, I had to get out of here. I could accept the guilt later. If I was dead, I wouldn't even be able to feel guilty for Emmett's sake.

I bounded through the dense forest, smells of greenery and moistness and the chill air assaulting my nose in much the same way getting that first whiff of the Cullen household had. I could get used to this form _later—_I needed to run_ now, Goddamnit!_

It was nothing but the sound of my heavy paws hitting the packed earth and the harsh breathing of some feral beast, of _me in this form_, for several tense, unthinking moments where I solely concentrated on sprinting the hell away. Then I felt something, something wholly strange and yet familiar, rooting around in my brain like some kind of disembodied tentacle.

And then a distinct _voice. _I instantly realized that these weren't my own thoughts, then promptly attempted to shut down whatever it was out of my brain like forcing down bad memories. But it was persistent. And something about this wolf-body's mind welcomed it, just like the instincts that screamed warning whenever I was faced with the Cullens.

_Leah! _

_Leah! _

_LEAH!_

Each blast of my name was harder to block out until I couldn't run and concentrate on keeping whoever it was out at the same time. So I decided to run instead of trying to achieve mental Zen; even if having this alien voice in my head scared me all the way to hell and back, it couldn't be worse than stopping and letting myself get taken.

_It's Sam._

Oh Jesus fucking Christ, I take that back.

_Don't be like that._

Holy shit, he can hear my thoughts, too?

_I'm the Alpha here. Everyone in my pack shares a mental connection._

_I don't recall ever joining your pack, _I thought at the vague echo of Sam's voice that floated through my mind.

_You reached your shifter maturity under my influence. That puts you squarely in my pack's territory; part of the pack.  
_

Well, fuck _that. _Did this "mental connection" have a range or was I doomed to hear this jackass' voice in my head at all times? If so, that would kind of throw a wrench into our plan.

_Oh, shit. _In a second, I obstinately disconnected my mind from anything Cullen-related; anything that had to do with Jasper's plan or where we were going _could not _reach Sam. I had no idea how far they were willing to chase me...I guess it all depended on just how much demand they had for female shape-shifting brood-mares.

I could _feel _Sam's mental strain as he attempted to root the memories out of me. I stubbornly sang "Caramelldansen" mentally, focusing solely on the annoying repetitiveness of the techno song to drone out all other thoughts. It wasn't hard. The song's uncomplicated melody and lyrics rattled off like the Pledge of Allegiance.

And then, just because fate decided things weren't confusing enough, a wave of anguish and utter shock nearly bowled me over; I had to catch myself mid-run and briefly dropped the tune. I quickly resumed, now anxious as to just how much he could have gotten to in that moment. Though I no longer felt that invisible presence in my mind—could whatever have elicited such a powerful response in him have jolted him out of my head? What could have caused that much of a distraction? That much surprise?

I just hoped it was Emmett opening up a can of whoop-ass on Sam and didn't allow myself to waste anymore time thinking about it.

A few seconds later, and I sensed that I was drawing closer to the city limits. The subtle changes in scent alerted me that I was drawing further and further away from the town of Forks. Regardless, I didn't stop running. I would never stop running.

* * *

**A.N.** I don't exactly like how I wrote this one. I've always been bad at building tension. And there was not enough Carlisle.


	9. Nightmare

**A.N./ **Slight warning for some sexuality in this chapter. Though this fic _is_ rated "M"...

I've decided to split this chapter into two parts because it was just becoming way too long. So, in advance, I apologize for the evil cliffhanger.

**DISCLAIMER:** All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.

* * *

**8. Nightmare**

The sun was sinking rapidly below the horizon, a burnished gold that was slowly morphing into glowing orange. I had been forced to slow down nearly an hour ago, this new body tired and aching in places that I didn't even _possess_ as a human. By now, I was seriously considering stopping. There was no indication that anyone was still following me, no strange scents on the air (and I had made sure that I was downwind), no sounds of pursuit.

Sam's voice never reappeared in my head, and I could only assume that he was either dead, had decided not to bother, or the "mental link" had a range on it. Of course, he could be high-tailing it up to Seattle by now and keeping the link closed because he didn't want me to find out... The dread had been with me ever since feeling such strong emotion form his end had caused me to momentarily slip up and allow him into my mind. At the time, I thought he was being attacked or something, but it had occurred to me that he could have been faking, trying to shake me into breaking the barrier of concentration I had built and let him in. I was entirely new to this whole shape-shifter thing; I had no idea about the whole "mind-share" until today, anything could have been possible. I wasn't even sure if I was successful at keeping him out in the first place.

I had run through some kind of shallow lake a while back, which was large enough to be a hassle to circle around and easy enough to just cross over, and now I was feeling the consequences. It was fall in Washington, and while not _freezing, _exactly, it was still somewhere less than fifty degrees outside. The constant wind buffeting my body did nothing to help that, and neither did being soaking wet. I could feel myself shivering through each step. I was cold, extremely tired, sore, and incredibly hungry. Running non-stop not only burned a lot of energy, it also reminded me that I hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning...right before I left for the beach with Angela, and Jessica, and Mike...

God, this was just the _longest day _in history, wasn't it? So much had happened, and it still wasn't over. I didn't think I possessed the energy right now to go on, and it felt like a miracle for me to just be walking.

I was so lost in thought that it took me several moments before I recognized the barrage of new smells that arrived with another gust of wind. I felt a little hope stirring in my chest, along with relief. The familiar aromatic mix of fresh, hot food, people, smoke from fireplaces and tire rubber told me that a town was likely only a few miles away. Ideally, I would be able to call Jasper and maybe even catch a bite to eat.

I bounded closer to what appeared to be the town's limits, spurred on by renewed hope, and stopped in a small cluster of trees on the crest of a small hill, looking down on the city below. Okay, maybe calling it a "city" was a bit much. The small road that dwindled away from the woods and brought stronger smells had a small green sign that caught my eye. "Quilcene: Population 591." And I thought _Forks _was small. From what I could see, there was only a small collection of Mom-and-Pop store fronts and small grouping of average-sized houses, a few unadorned buildings scattered here and there. No less than a hundred feet in front of me, some people were milling about in the inviting glow of soft lighting from what appeared to be a restaurant, laughing and chatting in the quiet atmosphere. It boggled my mind to see something so normal, but it brought me to the realization that despite what had just happened to me, people were going on with their lives, completely ignorant. The world still turned. People still woke up in the morning and went about their daily routines, going to school or to work, oblivious to the fact that there were people like me and the Cullens in the world. A girl who could change into a giant wolf at will and blood-sucking vampires.

I used to be one of them. Not two days ago, the biggest problem in my life was finding out that my biological father wasn't the person who I grew up calling "Dad." It seemed so silly, so petty, that I hadn't immediately forgiven Mom now. I was on the run for my life, for probably the rest of my life. I was never going to see her again. And she was probably sitting somewhere with the guilt of what she had done nearly twenty years ago instead of remembering me telling her "I love you." I should have made it clear. I don't know if she'll ever realize that even despite what she did, that I never stopped loving her.

The pain of my situation caught up to me, and suddenly I was wishing, not for the first time but for entirely different reasons, that this had never happened to me. If I wasn't Billy Black's daughter, would I ever have this power? It was so ironic that it made me want to laugh, then cry.

But I had to focus on the matter at hand. I was a monstrous wolf, hovering on the edge of civilization. I had no idea what the townspeople would do if confronted with me in this state, and I didn't want to find out now. Hunting wasn't an uncommon practice out here when people were surrounded with various wildlife. I would bet my left paw that at least one person here owned a shotgun, and wouldn't hesitate to use it against me. I wasn't particularly in the mood to feel the bite of a bullet on top of everything else, either.

I had to shift back. But how? I'd only ever seen others do it...and none of the Cullens could help me out in this situation, even if they were here.

Then I started panicking. I had no idea how to phase out of this form. What if I was trapped? What if I had to spend eternity as a _wolf? _And not even a normal wolf, either. Though I had a slight chance of hiding what I was in human form, even possibly able to blend into the crowd of normal society, it would be obvious to any vampires or shapeshifters exactly what I was in this form. And then it would only be a matter of time before they realized that I was in possession of a perfectly functioning pair of ovaries, too, and then it would be eternity trapped in a wolf body while in the custody of a bunch of militaristic assholes. Was it even _possible_ to conceive in this body?

...The mental imagery that assaulted my mind after that thought as well as the bile in my throat made me resolve to _never_ find out.

I tried to slow the buzz of my thoughts, focusing on attempting to shift back to my normal form. I shut out any extraneous thoughts and stray emotions and conjured an image of the human body: two legs, two arms, standing upright, feet with five toes, opposable thumbs. Almost at once, a responding thrum of energy was coaxed from my body, light at first, but steadily becoming stronger and more violent until it felt as though every inch of muscle was twitching. It was a slow build up of the same energy that had seized me when I jumped off of the overpass, but then it had been pure instinct. I was nearing the edge of transformation, I could feel it. Just a little more...

_Come on, Leah... Let's see, small nose, wide eyes, circular ears on either side of the head..._

But although I had the picture of human anatomy firmly in my mind, somehow it wasn't enough. I was still on all fours nearly ten minutes later, preparing for a change that wasn't happening. I closed my eyes and felt the wolf's broad forehead knitting at the force of my concentration. I could feel my head start to throb, my brain splitting in pain with the mother of all headaches. Why did being a shapeshifter have to come with so much _pain, _on top of the _super-exciting_ prospect of being a broodmother for life? Wasn't that just a _little _overkill? Ugh, the sarcasm was just effective in draining more energy from my already weakened body._  
_

And then it clicked. Instead of imagining a generic human form, I imagined my own body, my near-black eyes, dark skin, and roughly cut, thick black hair. The way my figure had recently changed into something leaner, more muscular while gaining something extra in the breast-and-hips department, thanks to the most recent growth spurt I was sure had something to do with the shapeshifter activation. I imagined my angular face, the scar that I had on my knee from a really bad road burn from when I was six years old, the mole under my left eye, the way my smile pulled up farther on the right side than the left...

My shivering turned to outright uncontrollable wracking, and within seconds I was thrashing on the ground without really remembering how I fell, feeling myself stretch and bend and shake and I was once again overwrought with _pain, _so much _pain, _like bones and tendons and ligaments stretching and compressing and being crushed_—_

And then it was over. I opened my eyes slowly, blinking in slight confusion. I was huddled in the fetal position on a bed of moss and dead leaves, completely naked.

Well, that shot my plan completely to hell. I was even more apprehensive of walking into that town in the buff than I was as a hulking wolf. My modesty happened to be a crippling disability, something that I never thought I'd think in my life.

I laid on the ground for a few seconds, thinking hard. It would have been nice if I could have at least had something like a sports bra and some shorts to be left with. Or even just my underwear, I wasn't exactly picky at the moment as long I wasn't NAKED. I was not about to jump into a public place, completely starkers. No. Way.

I pulled myself into a seating position, folding my legs against my chest for some semblance of decency and noting with some distaste that I now had dirt all over my skin. _Great_.

What next?

Well, I could wait here for somebody to find me, whether that "somebody" ended up being one of the Cullens or one of the wolves. If a wolf were to show up here, honestly, I would not be able to make that run. At this point, I was utterly exhausted. Muscles I didn't even know I had felt like they were put through a meat tenderizer_. _Shifting itself took so much out of me, and with my body in this battered state, I wasn't exactly looking forward to suffering through instantaneous bone growth anytime soon. Tired, hungry, naked and in pain, there wasn't much I could do about running away.

I had no cellphone or money on me. I couldn't even call Jasper. I halfheartedly glanced around the area I was in. It was rapidly becoming darker outside, which meant that the already-limited amount of sunlight filtering through the treetops was dim and nothing useful in the near vicinity leaped out at me like I hoped it would. Just a bunch of tall trees with thick trunks, leafy undergrowth, and mossy rocks. A chilly breeze was also picking up, which caused the hair on my body to stand on end. It was going to be cold tonight, and I was effectively stuck to wait it out. I could only hope that somehow one of the Cullens picked up my trail...

I rested my chin on my knees, peered out at the small town from my hidden position, and waited. Dread filled my stomach with butterflies at the possibility that I was followed by one of Sam's wolves, and it was this feeling that prevented me from the sleep I so desperately craved.

Hours passed and I barely moved, but it was a blissful change from running. The sun had dipped below the horizon and the moon had risen, full and pale, keeping watch over the night like a lord over his dominion. My eyes were wide and dry with the determination I was using to fight sleep. My vision was a little blurry from not blinking as much as I should have been, but my ears were working just fine. Better than fine, in fact, probably ten times better than their capabilities from when I was still just human. It seemed that all of my senses had been sharpened from my recent phasing; I was now so hyper-aware of my surroundings that ever little noise had me responding automatically, my head snapping to the source.

When I heard my name, whisper-soft, it was unlike the minute sounds of animals and insects scurrying around the forest. I was on my feet in a second without even thinking, my posture crouched into something defensive on pure instinct, a growl ripping from my throat. It was impossible to still call me human in that moment, and though the rational part of me felt a stab of fear at what I was doing, what I had become, a stronger, fiercer part of me shoved that aside, pumping adrenaline into my blood to prepare me for whatever was waiting for me out in the dark.

"Leah?" There it was again, closer now, and something about the way the name rolled off the tongue...

A more insistent rustling came from to the left in front of me. I stared hard at the shaking plants that were being pulled aside, my heart beating loud in my ears. I swallowed, my mouth suddenly paper-dry.

A figure stepped out of a thick copse of trees, navigating the treacherous terrain with ease. Even though it was too dark to see him clearly, I knew that it was Jasper. The scent that reached my nose wasn't offensive, but had my nerves on edge nonetheless. The instinctive response to the shapeshifter's natural enemy. The flame that was set alight in the pit of my stomach once I recognized his tall silhouette was a completely different instinct, one that only intensified as he drew closer.

I was fully aware that I was completely exposed to him in this stance and somewhere, in the back of my mind, this bothered me. There was a part of me that demanded that I scurry away behind a tree trunk to preserve what little modesty I had. But my logical, rational, _human _ self was left to the mercy of the anxious wolf in me that had its hackles raised and the skin on my body erupt into gooseflesh. Instead of backing down from my position, my muscles flexed further, the snarl in my throat a constant growl.

Jasper flashed me a confident smile that gleamed an eerie white in the moonlight, walking towards me almost casually. I tensed—_what if he got hurt—_but I couldn't fight my way past the screaming thought of "DANGER" enough to warn him or force myself away.

I could tell that even though he looked suave and sure as ever, he was sending out waves of reassurance, of calm, of peace, emotions that would dull the wolf-senses on high-alert. He came to a stop just feet away, and my body jerked towards him; I could see myself bounding over there and transforming, and it would only take a second, my massive claws would come down and rip off that pretty, pale face—

I shut my eyes with a yelp. Abruptly, my arms dropped from their rigid, outstretched position, my legs buckled and I was no longer crouching. I fell to my knees and before I could stop it, the pain and fear and utter exhaustion caught up to me. It was becoming more and more clear that I couldn't control myself. This was the second time I'd threatened to phase unexpectedly; the memories of waking up to an utterly destroyed room and having no idea what happened splintering sharply in my mind. I was shaking at the possibility of hurting Jasper, and it was worse than what happened to my room. I would be entirely conscious but unable to stop, possessed by the instincts of the wolf. I couldn't swallow down the lump in my throat, borne from the shame and the absolute terror-_I was a monster now_, and it was never more apparent. My eyes burned and I barely had time to hide my face behind my hands before the sobs began, wracking with the shaking force of my terrifying emotions.

I felt something drop just a little before me, and I knew it was Jasper without looking up. I realized then with humiliation that I was crying like a little girl in front of him and I was still _naked _and why was he so close? A hot blush crept up my neck, and I scrambled to somehow cover myself without looking up and letting him see my pathetic, tear-streaked face. The coolness of his body temperature was indistinguishable in the chilly air, but his presence was almost impossible not to feel. I felt a stab of something I didn't want to name, low in my belly, and the urge to run and hide was irresistible. But he'd already seen me, hell, I could feel his magnetic eyes burning into me right now, so what was the point? It wasn't like I could actively scrub those memories from his brain. I was feeling too shitty at that point to even try to scold him.

Then I realized with horror that he could probably feel every inch of what I was currently feeling. Burning shame washed over me again, more powerfully, and I felt like crying harder for an entirely _different_ reason. It took several moments before I could bring myself under enough control and summon the bravery to meet his eyes.

They were smoldering under the heavy cover of the night, against his glowing skin. Something in those depths caused my breath to catch. He wasn't looking anywhere but my face, but I felt his gaze like silk over my skin. I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

"Leah..." he said, sounding almost breathless. I searched his expression without knowing what I wanted to see there. His eyes were uncommonly dark, his face tilted down to face me though he was kneeling. Tendrils of hair brushed his eyes. I bit my lip and looked away, self-consciously moving to cross my arms over more of myself. A wave of strong emotion pierced my stomach, a hot tingling enveloped my body. My heart was beating so strongly and so fast that it nearly hurt; it was like I was trying to outrun the pack all over again. My breathing was hitched and uncommonly shallow. With my skin crawling, it felt like agony to stay so still.

"Jasper, uh, I—" I started, stumbling over the headiness of this feeling. I couldn't look at him, afraid and at the same time yearning to be pulled in by that heavy-lidded intensity.

"Shh..." His voice was low, too husky to be a whisper. His affected tone sent shock waves down my spine and I had to force myself to hold back another shiver.

And then I felt it; feather-light touches down my arm. My eyes shot to his in brief surprise.

"What're you—"

"Leah..." Jasper said roughly, and it was enough to make me freeze. His expression looked torn, his usually smooth features contorted. I realized that he was breathing, long, shuddering breaths, though I had no idea why. I watched him as he traced the path of his finger with his eyes, mesmerized by the lazy strokes.

I felt a burst of heat down below, and my eyes snapped shut, my teeth snagging my lip. Weight settled over me—Jasper was leaning his taut body over mine, slowly guiding me down, down...

My hair settled around my shoulders as my head tipped back automatically, the cool skin of his face gliding along my neck where he inhaled deeply. I couldn't control my moan when I felt his lips kiss the junction of my neck and shoulders, my knees slipping. The hard column of his hips pressed against mine and I arched towards him, every pore in my body alight, begging for more, _more. _

Through the dizziness that enveloped me, I fleetingly wondered if this was truly my own desire...

Apprehension seized me for a paralyzing moment before he began to do magnificent things with his mouth against my neck and I stopped thinking; I couldn't think.

"Leah," he said, and his voice was muffled but suddenly it was much deeper, much richer. I frowned in confusion. My eyes snapped open with vague recognition and abruptly the body laying over me grew, expanded. It was heavy and muscular and tan and there wasn't a stitch on him; the ripples along his back carried an intricate ink brand that turned my veins to ice. The voice that was purring my name was no longer Jasper's, and the face that turned to look at me was familiar and yet wholly different. His full mouth was curled into a smile that made me feel gut-wrenchingly sick.

I was seized by a new crash of panic and realization and Sam's smile became razor-sharp with wolflike fangs. There was a sharp stab of horrible, ripping agony, and I was being stretched and pulled and distorted and it was _just as bad as phasing like somebody had taken a knife and shoved it in and then _twisted _Dear LORD, that HURTS—!_

A rough hand clasped my shoulder, shaking me awake with a scream of terror. My heartbeat was like a constant drum in my ears, blood pounding so fiercely it was like a splitting headache and I had to grit my teeth to stop the overwhelming urge to phase.

It was a nightmare. I knew that now, with the forest remaining quiet and no heavy body on top of me—_in _me—but my mind was still speeding in a panic and the invisible fist of fear still squeezed my insides. The vestiges of imagined, ripping pain lingered like a ghost, forcing tears that I didn't realize I had been crying out of my eyes.

I was breathing heavily and staring at the ground, trying to banish the impressions of the terrible nightmare still left on my mind. I looked up only when my heart had calmed down to see Edward standing over me, looking pointedly away and thrusting out a folded square of clothes. I shakily grabbed them from him and pulled them on hastily, too terrified to really give a damn about modesty at this point.

It was an awkward silence that followed. It occurred to me while I steadily recovered from the shock and horror and nausea that Edward was the mind-reader of the Cullens.

_Lucky me to have the worst nightmare ever and then run into _you, I found myself thinking at the red head. He finally acknowledged me with a brief glare, though seemed to struggle to meet my eyes, quickly dropping my gaze.

_Oh, how I just _adore_ awkward silences. _

Edward cleared his throat pointedly. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to read his expression in the dim light. I had literally no interaction experience with this particular Cullen, so unlike even the cryptic Jasper (the name conjured images that I immediately fought down with a blush of humiliation), I had no idea how to decipher his facial expressions. Right now, he looked grim. The tic in his jaw also signaled that he was trying to repress something, probably whatever he read of my dream?

"Edward...right?" I asked slowly.

"Yes?" he replied, voice suspiciously polite. Obviously, he wanted to avoid talking about whatever he might have just witnessed. I shrugged. It wasn't like I was in any hurry to relive the experience...though I was simultaneously curious and dreading to know how much of what I dreamed he had received. Just the thought of what had occurred right before the dream veered into nightmare territory had me heating up again in mortification. I felt like burying my face in my hands, though I didn't know whether I'd cry or scream.

"T-this has been such a long day, huh?" I said shakily, a pathetic stab at normalcy. I had to wipe my sweaty palms off on the denim of the jeans Edward had kindly supplied me.

Edward only took one look at me before saying stiffly, "Jasper and Emmett are just a couple of miles away from here. We all spread out once your scent was lost. Follow me." He began stepping over the low brush in the direction I vaguely remembered coming from, though the trail was distorted under cover of darkness. I took a deep breath (trying to ignore the flare of my wolf-senses when Edward's cloying vampire smell lit a trail in my nostrils) and forced my sore feet after him. I kept my mind carefully blank, trying not to think of anything important. Though I didn't explicitly _dis_trust Edward, per se, I didn't know him at all and didn't appreciate him knowing me through my thoughts. Even if he wasn't human and I was...certainly not a normal human...it didn't mean that the whole "having a conversation" thing was suddenly optional.

Nearly an hour later, I was sure that Edward was getting almost as sick of hearing "Caramelldansen" in loop as I was thinking it when he sighed audibly, his tense shoulders dropping. I figured that he had quit trying to read my mind, though I was paranoid enough not to think about anything except exactly how much of this day was spent in fear. Specifically I was dwelling about everything that had happened; despite everything that brought evidence to the contrary, it was still an almost exhausting thing to wrap my mind around. Jacob, telling me that I was going to "die," a poor euphemism for losing my life to the will of the pack, then watching Sam just transform like that, like the crippling pain that accompanied the change was nothing to him. I replayed Emmett's face in my head as he spun the car to slam it against the guardrail, how his features were contorted with urgency and a note of sheer terror that he'd been trying to hide behind his cocky grins and bad driving. I thought about Mom, and how she'd react to the grim news of my disappearance. I wondered how long it would take her to call Dad—not Billy Black, but my father back in Texas—and whether he'd be too busy being wrapped around his new wife's little finger to properly care.

I thought about Angela and Jessica, the friends I'd made here, and realized that I'd probably never see them again after practically being abducted just a few feet away from them. I had never even thought to call out a proper "goodbye." It was a startling thought to think that a few weeks ago I was worried about this "alien" life in Forks, when now I was being thrown into a constant flux, a permanent state of homelessness. How could I ever build a home, when the consequence would just bring my nightmare into reality?

Edward led us through the forest with the moon being our only guide on the rocky, uneven terrain. I had no idea whether we were lost or not because over the course the trip he had stopped several times and went incredibly still, forcing me to almost run into him several times, then resumed trekking as though nothing had happened. I wondered with an idle sort of curiosity if he could somehow sense the minds of Jasper or Emmett and was using those as his leads. Either way, what felt like hours later we broke through the dense thicket of trees and onto a crudely carved gravel-and-dirt road, lit again only by the faint light of the moon and stars. Edward nodded towards what appeared to be the dark shape of a vehicle nestled under some low-hanging branches several feet away. As we approached, I recognized the form of a very tall, muscular person leaning against the side of the car and I felt my face breaking into a wide grin of relief.

"Emmett! You're okay?" Even though I was nearly limp with fatigue, I forced my legs into a run.

"Thanks for sounding so surprised," he said, and though there was wryness in his voice I could see the outlines of a relieved smile when I threw my arms around him without a second thought.

"Thank you _so _much, Emmett. You really, _really_ didn't have to do that." My words were only slightly muffled by his shirt. He looked down at me bemusedly, wincing a bit.

"Leah—Leah, I'm _fine_, just a little tired and, ow, you're squeezing just a little too tightly."

"Sorry!" I dropped my arms and stepped back with a sheepish grin, appraising him fully. Despite what he'd said, there were still parts of his clothing that were slashed open, their edges appearing darkened and matted by what I assumed to be vampire blood. I grimaced at the thought of what he must have endured to keep the wolves at bay.

"I've healed already, anyway," Emmett said once he realized what I was doing. I brought my eyes back up to his face, and he was raising his eyebrows at me. "Sorry," I mumbled again, feeling a little out of place. I turned a little to see Edward looking puzzled at my behavior, and it caused me to blush. Not wanting to revel in the awkwardness, I asked with an extra-dose of false brightness, "So! Where's Jasper?"

"Jasper sent us off to look for you before taking the other car ahead of us and making all of the necessary preparations in Seattle," Edward answered primly.

"Wait, so we're driving to Seattle now?" Edward nodded. "Guys, there's a town right _there. _Wouldn't it be easier to just—"

"It's too small," Emmett interrupted. "We'd stick out like sore thumbs. If any of the pack members just asked around, you'd be easier to track than a heartbeat." He shot me a reassuring grin, and the glow of his teeth in the moonlight reminded me vividly of something else, of some_one _else. I had to quickly replace the images flooding my mind by concentrating on my massive hunger, though it didn't prevent my knee-jerk reaction of a blush.

I saw Edward raise an eyebrow in the corner of my eye. I mentally thought at him where, exactly, he could shove his non-verbal eyebrow skepticism. Then he just scowled.

"Okay, fine," I muttered, though my stomach felt emptier than the Grand Canyon. "How long will it take to get there, anyway?"

"'Round two hours," was Emmett's awfully cheerful reply. I groaned. The idea of being trapped in a car and playing mental tag with Edward while starving and immensely sleepy was _not_ appealing. And I couldn't afford to fall asleep, either, or Edward could probably just root through my subconscious. While I wasn't entirely sure that he was that big of a prick, I didn't want to take any chances. I couldn't let him know about that goddamn_ dream_; I had the feeling that if he knew, I'd never live it down.

. . .

The lights passed car sporadically, a car that felt incredibly stuffy with two significantly-sized (they were both above six feet, for Christ's sake!) vampires stuffed into it, their smell wafting over me and making me too jittery to fall asleep, thankfully. My empty stomach was roiling, and I felt like I would start dry-heaving if I didn't do something about it, and fast.

"Edward?" I asked about fifteen minutes of unbearable claustrophobia their smell was inciting.

He stayed facing forward, his expression unchanging in the rear-view mirror. "Yes, Leah?"

His tense tone caused me to frown, but he didn't see it.

"Can I open the window?" I requested as innocently as possible.

"What's the matter, wolf-girl? Vampire musk not appealing to you?" Emmett snickered from the passenger seat. Apparently I didn't do "innocent" particularly well.

"Sorry, Emmett. The smell of corpse just doesn't do it for me," I shot back, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Well, you took the words right out of my mouth." I blinked at him in confusion, causing him to laugh. "You wolves aren't exactly Glade plug-in quality."

"What? I stink?" I cried, which only elicited more uproarious laughter from Emmett. "I mean, I know I've been running around all day, but...sheesh, I didn't think it was that bad..." I muttered, feeling embarrassed. Was that why Edward seemed so tight-lipped? So that he didn't have to breathe for as much as possible? The thought made me want to evaporate with guilt. I hit my forehead against the cool of the window glass. "Ow."

Within seconds, a whirring sounded as the window was opened, brushing real, cool, and fresh-smelling air over my too-hot skin. I darted a glance at the rear-view mirror. Edward had on a smirk, one that ordinarily would have made me bristle but in this case I was feeling grateful that he allowed me my embarrassment without comment.

"Problem solved," Emmett said nonchalantly, pressing the button that would bring his own window down. The wind whipped through the car, waking me up more effectively than everything else. It took me a few minutes to recover from my mortification, but soon my undying curiosity overrides any embarrassment. As well as the desire not to stay in silence. I don't know what it is in lapses in conversation, but whenever they appear I always try to fill them.

"So...what happened, Emmett?"

He glanced back at me, the gold eye in his profile narrowing.

"What are you talking about?"

"C'mon, last time I saw you, you were the finish line for two wolves' collision course. How did you escape? Are they..." I swallowed over the word that sticks in my throat. I wasn't sure if Sam deserved death, and God forbid the other one was Jacob. What did Jasper say earlier? Around fifteen pack members? What if those two wolves were two people who I'd never even met before...two guys who were just following orders?

"They aren't dead," Edward said quietly when Emmett's eyes turned downcast.

"What... Why do you two look so... What aren't you telling me?"

"We didn't want to throw more wood on the fire, so to speak," Edward begins, his eyes still staring straight ahead at the road, as deserted as it was. "But those vampires from Port Angeles that we had to...take care of? They'd disappeared before we could confront them about the mess they left behind, but not before catching a very _interesting _scent that night. A scent that they followed all the way up to Forks."

I sucked in a harsh breath. "Me? They tracked _me?_"

"The second you left, they turned up. And at first they were all smiles, helping me with the wolves. But then they asked about you, and I realized that they were going to follow you and then find out what you are. They're not neutral vampires, Leah; they seemed incredibly dedicated to the cause," Emmet interjected.

"So...so what? Now I don't only have Sam's pack and possibly every pack of shapeshifters on my tail to turn me into a baby factory, but there's also a _vampire army_ I have to worry about? What could they _possibly want _with me?" I leaned forward, gripping the back of the passenger seat, trying to see Emmett's expression. He winced at my words.

"Well, once they figure out what you are and what you can do...they'll kill you. Or maybe capture you for bait. But they want to remove all shapeshifters and werewolves from the equation, which means that whatever it is, they want to stop the other side from getting you at all costs."

"It's not good," I said.

"No, no it really _isn't_," Emmett laughed nervously.

I bit my lip. "Can you guys really...?"

"We're not about to let anyone destroy the life of an innocent girl," Edward said, and for the first time there was a definite expression written on that cold face. His frown looked severe, frighteningly magnified by the intermittent light and darkness that the periodic streetlamps threw on his features. I shivered involuntarily, afraid for myself. Vampires, werewolves, and shifters. It was a war, and both sides wanted me dead; one literally and the other casting me into a non-life, a life of forced servitude. I felt my gratitude towards the Cullens increase. They were risking so much for me, and for others like me who happened to be caught in the line of fire. But I couldn't help wondering how long it would last.

I knew the clock that ticked away my life had already started. The only question was exactly how much time I had left.

. . .

We pulled up to a Super 8 Motel only a couple of miles away to Seattle's downtown around midnight. It wasn't the Ritz or anything, but it was low-key enough for a couple of young-looking kids to shack up in for the night. I was tired enough by then not to care and my neck and back hurt because I'd intentionally propped myself up in a position too uncomfortable to sleep in. With the kind of freakiness I was getting into, who knew? I could phase in my sleep, or have another godforsaken _dream _that I'd have to spend several days trying to hide from a fucking _mind-reader_.

I was finding that being exhausted, starving, and then thrown into a car that stank of vampire had me feeling quite crabby.

I wiped a hand down my face, pressing my fingers into eyes that felt dryer than the Sahara, waiting in the car with Emmett for Edward to come back with our room keys. Another good thing about this motel was that all of the rooms were accessible from the outside. We weren't cooped up in a skyscraper with no way out but the window. And I'd get the bed all to myself, because I didn't think that vampires needed their z's...

Something knocked against my window. I jumped, shooting an alarmed look out of the glass. Edward shook a jangling keyring in front of my face and I scowled at him. I think he was smirking at me; one corner of his mouth twitched (probably involuntarily. The guy seemed to have all of the emotional range of a boulder). I got out of the car with a brief exhalation of pain: my joints were already aching like I'd put them through hell just with the simple movement of standing up. I knew that an incredibly sore body awaited me tomorrow, and though I was still hungry, I felt like I was so sleepy that I'd probably just lose consciousness mid-bite. Thankfully, our room was on the ground floor.

I walked to room 103, Emmett trailing behind me while I saw Edward fish out a cellphone in my peripheral vision. I guessed that he was calling Jasper, updating him on the situation. I threw open the door, took the few steps to the middle of the room where a nice, roomy queen-size bed sat, and fell onto it with a groan. I heard the sound of the door closing and then locking, the light laughter of Emmett reaching me.

"You're that drained?"

I grunted.

"Jeez, wolf-girl, someone's outta shape."

I couldn't even respond; I was too busy trying to take off my shoes without using my hands. I finally kicked off the simple tennis shoes, then brought my legs up to my chest, not even bothering with the blankets. Within seconds, the blissful nothing of sleep enveloped me.

. . .

Images flashed through my mind, terrible, disjointed, nonsensical. Wolves, bats, insects, blood, bones, skulls... I was something small, insignificant, being pressed all around by darkness like a grape, being squeezed under all that pressure until I would surely just _pop_-

I resurfaced into reality, blinking against the intrusive light that settled like a beam over my eyes. It took a few seconds for everything to come back to me, and then I sat up quickly, scanning the room for either Emmett, Edward, or Jasper. It was empty. I was alone.

The thought sent a pang of fear into my heart like a dagger of ice. There was nobody here. Nobody to protect me. I blinked rapidly, biting my lip.

_Alright, alright. Calm down._ I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

_You're a shapeshifter. They probably thought that you could handle being alone for a little while. Now stop acting like a baby._

I focused on my current predicament. Glancing at the cheap digital clock on the bedside table told me that it was around ten a.m., and that brought me to the realization that I hadn't eaten in over twenty-four hours. Did vampires eat? That was a stupid question. Did they forget that I had to eat because they could sustain themselves on a liquid diet of A, B, or O?

I absently rubbed my growling stomach and looked around the room once more in the hope that one of them brought me food. Nothing edible, though I did notice the suitcase that Alice had thrown together leaning by the wall next to the door. That brought me to my second realization for the day: that I had also not showered in over twenty-dour hours, either, and after running through the woods all night, I sure as hell needed one. I sighed to myself, then ambled over to the bag of clothes, flinching at the tenderness of my muscles.

I brought the bag over to the bed and emptied out its contents.

I had to say, it was kind of weird how all of the clothes were in my size. The clothes must have been Rosalie's or something, however, because although they were my size, none of it looked like something I would wear. I didn't even consider the possibility of Alice shopping for me while I was unconscious at their house-that would have been just plain strange. Besides, I thought she had been wearing something similar to one of the many outfits in the bag back at the Cullens' house. I picked out an unnecessarily lacy black shirt but decided to keep the jeans I was wearing on because there was no way in hell I was going to put on one of the many skimpy skirts and shorts that Alice had packed for me. I grabbed the bundle of clothes and went into the small bathroom, locking the door in case any of the boys came back. Though Edward had caught me in the buff last night... I shook the thought away with a blush and turned on the shower faucet, setting the water to its hottest setting.

I shed all of my clothes from the night before, but just as I was about to step in the shower I caught my reflection. My face... It wasn't unrecognizable, but it had sure gone through some change since I last looked at myself.

My face seemed leaner. Any traces of baby fat I had had were wiped away. My mouth was quirked down, my eyes widened with vestiges of fear. My skin was a little pale from restless sleep. Rings circled my eyes. I didn't know how to describe it, but the overall effect was that I looked a lot...older. I could easily pass for someone in their twenties. And my hair... In the span of two weeks, it had grown from a neck-length layered cut to below my shoulders. It wasn't just my hair that had gone through a growth spurt, either. I felt like I had shot up a couple of inches as well, my body becoming slimmer and gaining curves simultaneously. I went from five-foot-five to something more like five-eight...maybe even five-_nine_.

It probably had something to do with shifting. But I felt like I stood out a lot more now. How could I make myself more ordinary, more forgettable? And traveling around with three attractive guys wasn't going to do us favors in the "keeping a low profile" department, either. Hell, I thought they were suspicious the second I laid eyes on them, and I was, as far as I knew, without shifter senses at that point.

My mirror was fogging up. I sighed and took a shower, but I couldn't keep the worry from my mind.

I left the shower minutes later, searching for a pair of underwear when I realized that I'd forgotten to take it into the bathroom with me. I wrapped the thin, crappy motel-quality towel snugly around myself, then put my ear to the door, listening intently for any movement. Nothing.

I opened the door and rifled through the suitcase, looking for something suitable. My eye twitched when I discovered that although Alice didn't go clothes shopping, she _did _have the courtesy to purchase pairs of underwear for me, all the right size and all with the price tags still attached to them. I felt my face heat up in embarrassment, which only intensified when I picked up the plainest bra and caught sight of the price._ Fifty dollars_ for a _bra?_

And it was all... Well, it was all frilly and lacy and colorful..._lingerie_. Now I wanted to find a rock to crawl under. Why the hell would she...?

The sound of a door opening and closing had my spinning around, hurriedly clasping my hands behind my back.

"Whoa, there."

_Oh, great. _

Although I recognized him from his distinctive way of speaking, I wasn't entirely prepared to actually see him there, standing in the doorway. His very appearance made me jump a little, my heartbeat kicking up a notch with the memories that it conjured. I flushed in embarrassment. A nervous, jittery feeling knocked against the walls of my stomach, and I subconsciously folded my arms over myself, unwillingly remembering what had happened in my dream...and the nightmare that followed. I swallowed sharply, suddenly unable to look him in the eye.

"I'm just gonna...go change," I muttered, feeling at least glad that I had an excuse to scamper and hide in the bathroom while I tried to get a handle on myself.

I splashed cold water on my face a few times, giving myself a hard stare in the mirror.

_Snap out of it. It was a dream, a nightmare. You don't have anything to be afraid of with Jasper, he saved you, remember? _

I quickly pulled on my clothes. They stuck to my damp skin unpleasantly, but I didn't bother drying off.

When I opened the door, I found Jasper with a hand over his mouth, unmoving from his spot by the door. He was also doing a fabulous job of not looking at me, his eyes only darting my way sporadically. I frowned.

"Is everything okay?"

His eyes snapped up. "What? Yes, yes of course." His smile looked almost forced.

An uncomfortable silence followed.

"You, uh, you took a shower," Jasper stated almost lamely.

"Yeah...Emmett told me that I stunk-stink. Well, he and Edward pretty much told me that shapeshifters smell. That's not true, is it?" I asked a little too brightly, trying to latch onto some normalcy.

Jasper just stared at me, like he couldn't believe what I was saying. I blinked; his eyes... Now that he was looking at me, his eyes were black_. _Not that deep blue-violet, but absolutely coal-colored.

"What happened to your eyes?" I asked cautiously. His strange behavior was enough to distract me from my lingering dream.

"Oh, it's a vampire thing," he said, with what sounded like relief in his voice. I felt my eyebrows raise.

"Are you going to elaborate on that?"

"Well... Oh, I completely forgot," he muttered, his stiff awkwardness disappearing instantly. "I brought you some food." Jasper gestured sheepishly to a paper bag that was sitting on the bedside table.

"Oh, thank god. I'm starving!" I immediately snatched up the bag and unfolded the top, my mouth watering at the delicious smells emanating from within.

"It's a hamburger from the local place. I also got you some fries," Jasper said, watching me as I ripped through the foil packaging and proceeded to devour the food.

"This is _delicious," _I managed between bites. "Thank you!"

Jasper nodded, ambling over to the bed and taking a seat with something like amusement on his face. I quickly finished the burger and began picking through the fries, leaning against the wall opposite him. I didn't think I could handle any close proximity when I was like this-I didn't want to confuse reality to whatever feelings I might have possessed in my dream.

Sure, I thought Jasper was attractive. I thought the same about all of the Cullens. It was probably the intensity of the day that had produced whatever it was that I dreamed. Jasper had helped me, but I hardly knew the man. For all I knew, he drank human blood...

"So, is human blood as satisfying to you as this burger was to me?" I asked curiously. Jasper stiffened.

"I don't drink human blood," he said tightly.

"I-I didn't mean to offend you-" I started, instantly feeling a guilty. "I mean, vampires can drink without killing anyone, right? You-you don't... You're not a murderer."

His black stare was penetrating. I felt a shiver trace my spine, fear turning my skin cold.


End file.
